eragon

Enter the dragon
Review by Vives Anunciacion

Directed by Stefen Fangmeier
Based on the novel by Christopher Paolini
Starring Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory
G / 104 minutes
20th Century Fox
** ½ stars (2 ½ stars)

It’s like Star Wars and Harry Potter with a little Lord of the Rings, and instead of riding x-wings or broomsticks it’s riding dragons. Eragon, at the very least, has marvelous costumes. Lots of it. Behold the most fasyon fantasy adventure for kids.

An orphan teenager, Eragon (newcomer Ed Speleers) discovers his destiny as Alagaesia’s last dragon rider after he finds and raises a blue dragon, which he calls Sephira (voiced by Rachel Weisz.) Jeremy Irons plays his mentor Brom, who trains Eragon to be a rider and instructs him on his quest to join the rebel force Vardens and free Alagaesia from the dark rule of lord Galbatorix (John Malkovich.)

First, Eragon must rescue the elf princess Arya (Sienna Guillory) who was responsible for teleporting the dragon egg to Eragon, from the clutches of Galbatorix’ minions. Eragon manages to accomplish this with a heavy price that forces Eragon to bring Arya to the Vardens. Galbatorix’s army arrives and a brief battle ensues, but in the end the good guys win – until the last shot when Galbatorix thrashes his throne room to reveal his deadly secret and the prelude to Part 2.

If the story reminds you of Star Wars except that it’s set in Hobbiton, don’t run for the exits yet because the highlight of the movie is when Eragon rides Sephira while training. After all, we’ve never seen a dragon rider before. The CG effects are well done and the visuals are beautiful, not surprising since the director is a former visual effects supervisor.

But that is Eragon the movie’s main problem – it’s easy on the eyes but not on the ears as the story suffers from bad dialogue, bad character development, stone-cold acting and clichéd ideas, as if only the effects mattered. A teenager may have written the original novel, but the screenplay has no excuse to sound amateurish. One thing’s for sure: those black leather pants on Eragon are sure smashing.

To err is human, to Eragon, derived.