Eragon Movie Review

Plot
Eragon is a 17-yr-old boy who lives on a small little farm, near a small little town called Carvahall, in the mountains, in the fantasy land of Alagaesia. They are ruled by an evil tyrant, King Galbatorix. The king's sole resistance is the Varden, a group of hidden people who have their own leader and are constantly making raids on the king.
While hunting Eragon finds a blue rock. An old hippy(Brom) from town speaks of old days when there used to be dragons and riders. And he says those days will come again. Eragon's rock turns out to be a dragon egg and he secretly becomes a dragon-rider. (Dragons are both good guys and bad guys in this movie and book) The king is out to kill him and Brom leads him through the wilderness and trains him. Eventually, they go to the Varden's secret hide-out just in time to participate in a battle between the evil Urgals and the Varden.
They, of course, are on the Varden's side. And that's how they die....... (actually, you'll have to find out for yourself) :)

+Positive & -Negative Elements

Plot
+

• Brom risks his life to save Eragon's life while Eragon is trying to rescue someone from jail.

• Eragon, Brom, and Eragon's dragon(Sapphira) look out for each other and fight for each other.

• Ultimately, the good guys beat the bad guys.

-

• Magic is used by the good guys. (It's not really magic in the book but they don't develop it in the movie so you have to assume its spiritual magic, which is condemned in the bible)

• There is some unnecessary violence where the leader of the Bad guys (The Shade) hurts his subjects. The Shade also gets red all around his mouth and eyes just before battle which looks kind of disturbing.

• There's kind of a loll in the plot when they run away; you're not sure where they're headed except that they're staying away from the bad guys.

Production
+

• The cinematography is very well done. There are some beautiful swooping shots of Eragon and Brom on horse-back, traveling over hills and wilderness. The computer graphics and real film footage are very well produced and combined.

• The music also went well with the feeling of the movie; it wasn't distracting or over dramatic. (Good soundtracks are where you don't really notice it, yet it adds so much to the feeling of the movie)

• The scenes, sets, and acting were relatively believable and well done.
  

-

• Some of the bad guys' make-up was kind of fakey.

• I think they could have spent more time on the script; at times it seemed like the script was written for a kids movie, yet there was too much violence for it to be a kids movie so they didn't go together. They could have either toned down the violence or worked up the script more.

Pacing
-

• I think they could have slowed down the story a bit and developed the main characters a little more. Of course, its difficult to make an 100 minute movie out of a 509 page book that was written by a very descriptive author.
• The editing was choppy and characters were under-developed.

Overview
I read from another reviewer who wrote sarcastically that the director had read a few chapters of the book and then made the movie. If you've read Eragon you know what he means. The movie does a poor job of sticking to the book and adds things randomly. The best elements of the movie are the Special Effects and Cinematography. They could have spent more time on the script, character development, and pacing. The book is always better than the movie. (Of course)

I enjoyed the movie and enjoyed picking out what was good and was bad to use in my upcoming feature film. (A later post. Maybe. :-) )
If you would like to read a christian, more in depth, review, click here.

-Aaron