Eragon (2006)

Written during the early days of Potter-mania, Eragon snatched up an audience among tween and teen readers. It follows the same basic outline of Harry Potter (young boy longing for a better life discovers that he is something special and surrounded by fantastical people) but replaces the England with a totally made up land and trades cutesy witchcraft for cutesy fantasy magic. Too bad it’s all smoke and mirrors.

To say that Eragon is a rip-off of much of the Lord of the Rings mythology would be dishonest. This film is actually a lazy rip-off of the fantasy genre as a whole. I haven’t read the book but if the movie is any indication, teenage author Christopher Paolini managed pull a fast one on a lot of gullible people caught up in a frenzy to find the heir apparent to Mr. Potter.

Outside of the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, fantasy novels have a hard time getting any respect and credibility. Maybe that’s because most sword-and-dragon tales are predictable and can’t help but borrow popular elements from the original titans of the genre. Maybe tweens and teens were suckered in because they liked reading about young people and hadn’t given up their fantasy training wheels yet.

Ed Speelers (I’ve never heard of him either) stars as Eragon, a young country boy who finds a blue stone in the forest. Only, it’s not a stone- it’s a dragon egg! Sure enough, prophecy foretells of a young boy who will usher in a new era of dragon riders and restore peace to the kingdom of Alagaesia. This is all bad news for the woefully-named King Galbatorix, who ended the line of riders in his quest for ultimate power.

Eragon learns the art of dragon riding and teams up with a rag-tag band of rebels looking to end the oppressive rule of Galbatorix. It all sounds and feels formulaic and predictable enough but Eragon has some potential in its story to be a real crowd pleaser. All of this potential is held back, however, by Paolini’s youth and still-developing writing skills. I shouldn’t knock the kid too much because an adult was tasked with adapting the novel for the screen. Believe me, Peter Buchman is every bit as culpable for this mess.

Blame must also be assigned to first-time director Stefen Fangmeier (sounds like the perfect name for a fantasy flick director no?). Fangmeier has worked as special effects supervisor for some of Hollywood’s biggest effects spectacles. If anyone can throw together an effects-driven fantasy epic, this guy can! Well, not so fast there professor. The visuals in Eragon are decidedly second rate. Between the laughably silly shadowy confines of Galbatorix’s castle to woefully generated CGI, Fangmeier misses the mark.

The cast of Eragon is rather inspired but it ends up as little more than an inspired mess. The film incorporates the talents of three eccentric and eclectic actors- Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle and John Malkovich. It seems like each one is playing their role up for all its worth, which results in either cheesy clichéd characters or something completely over the top and unsuitable for the film. Alongside these men are a collection of unknowns. Had a little more care gone into the casting, some of the more outlandish parts could have been reigned in and actually work they way they were intended.

There is a potentially good story to be had in Eragon. Not great and memorable but certainly good. What would it take to draw this out? A few more rewrites, a couple of original ideas, a complete recasting, a better visual effects department and a director who knows what he’s doing.

RATING: 2 out of 5