BY TRINA:
Over the Christmas holidays, Carrie & I had time to see one movie – we chose ‘Eragon’ over Ben Stiller’s ‘A Night at the Museum’. I don’t know that we made a good choice…
We had high hopes for this movie, (both being fantasy book and movie lovers) and even decided against reading the books until we could see the movie, just to be surprised with the story. The only thing that surprised me was my disappointment.
‘Eragon’, based on the book by Christopher Paolini was filmed in the luscious textures of real-life Hungary, and that was really the best thing about this fantasy.
The few adult actors and the unknown kids did well enough, considering the script, which was annoyingly predictable. When will I get to see a ‘teen’ movie where a kid is actually smart enough to RUN AWAY from the bad guys and let his dead uncle’s corpse burn in peace?! When will I see a kid HUMBLE enough to learn from his mentor without pitching a whining fit?
The almost complete LACK of on-screen "Dragon-Rider-Training" made me groan at the ridiculousness of Eragon’s sudden ‘wisdom’ in Dragon-Rider knowledge. Take the line when he reproves his mentor with "You’ve forgotten what it means to be a Dragon-Rider!"
Uh-huh. And you’ve been doing this how long?
Thankfully, Eragon went on to prove himself a not completely dislikable character – the Saphira-Eragon relationship was the best element of the film, (and something I will look forward to in the book). But even this relationship is alarming with it’s problem, which really sums up the problems of the movie: it was RUSHED.
RUSHED story, RUSHED character development, RUSHED action sequences, RUSHED ending. And that is what sets it apart (in a bad way) from greats like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. The blame must be heaved on both the director and screenwriter’s shoulders.
My hopes are that my Spring reading of the book will be a better adventure.
CARRIE'S RESPONSE:
Ok, when going to see ‘Eragon’ last month, my expectations weren’t exactly small and I’m happy to say, I left the theater satisfied.
The script was NOT predictable. On the contrary, when I found myself staring at what I thought was a poor excuse for a muscle shirt but what turned out to be Eragon’s chest, I was properly shocked (as I’m sure was the directors intention).
As a rebuttal to my sib’s review, Trina, there’s something you don’t seem to get. Eragon was born to be a dragon-rider, therefore, intense training was not required. Well, sure, Eragon’s emotions did run a little high for a while. And his little-girl whines did get on my nerves a bit, but c’mon!
The scenery was awesome, the battles well shot and the dragons were pretty dang cool!
And though, IMO, Jeremy Irons excelled all the others acting-wise, everyone else was very well placed and by all means watchable.
In conclusion, I’m quite happy with my decision to see ‘Eragon’ over ‘A Night at the Museum’. Not because I hate Ben Stiller, (which I don’t, though he is a little to close to, if there were such a thing, the missing link for my taste), but because, being the die-hard fan of fantasy and sci-fi that I am, ‘Eragon’ was a very enjoyable watch.
