Eragon DVD Review

By Tim • August 30, 2009

Sapphira and Eragon

I will say at the very beginning that there has never been a worse book to movie transition, well… other than Twilight.

With that said, I will say that as a stand alone movie Eragon is not bad at all.

I love fantasy fiction and had to read the book. Of course, once I read it, I immediately dug into the other two in the series. Looking back now, I wish I would have seen the movie first instead of the other way around. If I were to base my like or dislike of Eragon on how well is was adapted to the screen, I would not recommend it. However, I didn’t think of that when I was watching it.

I wanted to be entertained and watch a movie for what it is. A fantasy adventure with dragons, magic, and cool stuff like elves and Urgals.

Eragon Is A Movie

When you watch the movie you have to stay away from thinking about the book. Just focus on the movie. If you do that, you will be pretty happy. The movie is pretty good. Not stellar. Not even great. It is just a pretty good movie.

While I was watching it, I couldn’t help get the sense that there were two things going on in the creation of Eragon. First, it felt like it was done fairly quickly without any attention to the details. For instance, whenever the evil king, Galbatorix, was a part of the a scene, it had a really bad sense of “this is so sound stage”. It looked like an old Conan movie where everything is set in a sound stage. Now, most movies are, but this was very obvious.

The second is that there wasn’t much focus in the dialogue. There are gaps in the scenes, dialogues and plot that there wasn’t much explanation of what is going on. But, because of the cool dragon scenes and big fighting scene at the end, I could get by all that and not let it really interfere with my like for the movie.

The actors were alright. Jeremy Irons did a very good job as Brom, the old dragon rider. However, I wasn’t all that captivated by any of the other acting. Ed Speleers (Eragon) really didn’t bring to life what I thought should be a young hero. But, for the movie that it is, they did a worthy job.

Eragon Is About The Dragon

Let’s face it. The only reason people like fantasy movies at all is because of the dragons. The one place where the creators of the movie put in a lot of emphasis is in the dragon. Saphira looks great, and she alone makes up for the cheesy sets and dialogue.

Eragon Is Not A Huge Blockbuster Movie, But…

While it isn’t a huge summer blockbuster, it is a pretty good movie. It is well worth your time and maybe even a few repeat viewings with your family during those rainy summer nights, or cold winter days. Sometimes we have to get away from the huge “suppose to be huge hit” movies and just enjoy something without having a lot of expectations from it.