Eragon

When I first heard that a movie is going to be made by the book "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini, I must say I was very delighted, and I was even more delighted when I heard that Stefen Fangmeier will be the director. I have read the book, and thaught:"What a great movie this is going to be". Unfortunately, I was wrong. First of all, I would dare to say that half of the events that happened in the book weren't shown in the movie at all(reason: Lord of the Rings has less then 400 pages and the movie lasts around 3 hours; Eragon has around 500 pages and it lasts around hour and a half). As a result, instead of complexed, unpredictable fantasy plot you get simple, one-way heading fairy tale. Characters that play very significent role in book(like Murtagh, Ajihad and Angela) are hardly even mentioned in the movie, so that it becomes centered on pretty much only 3 characters-Eragon, Saphira and Brom. Villains and locations lack imagination, so they look cheap and ordinary. Choice of actors is, in my opinion, good, except Edward Speleers. There are way too much "memorable quotes" in the movie, so that movie becomes kind of too much theatrical.Everybody, from director to actors failed, but still, I personally bealive that the biggest failure is Peter Buchman, screenwriter. Although he had a fantastic material to work on, he managed to ruin it, and make a pathetic screenplay from a fantastic bestseller. Only bright side of the movie is always top-of-the-class John Malkovich(King Galbatorix), pretty solid performance by Jeremy Irons (Brom), but most of all dragon Saphira (voice by Rachel Weisz, whose vocal abilities are on very desirable level)

Just saw the premiere, here in Portugal, and after reading all the terrible reviews, I was ready for the worse case scenario. Fortunatly, it wasn't THAT bad, I actually enjoyed the movie, but one cannot stop wondering why the hell they trashed a lot more of the original tale then necessary. The CGI is great, the cast is actually quite decent, and it really looks like the team that brought us this, wanted the movie do be bad. The "catch phrases" are as awful and basic as any B-movie, and the interaction between characters should have been worked a lot better. But it's fair to say that who hasn't read the book, will overlook some of the flaws.

I'm giving it a 6. A 7 may also be adequate, but... I've read the book.

The movie talks about a young peasant named Eragon (Edward Speleers) living at homeland called Alagaesia , he's an orphan fostered by his uncle (Alun Armstrong) and he finds a mysterious stone like an egg , when suddenly awakening a baby dragon and is named Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weistz) . They communicate themselves by telepathic language . An older wanderer named Brom (Jeremy Irons) is the mentor of the farm boy , he suddenly encounters himself the only person can save the kingdom , battling against a horrible sorcerer named Durza (Robert Carlyle) , a nasty, evil-hearted magician . Eragon becomes the new Dragon rider fighting across the fantastic lands . He and the Dragon make for an entertaining pairing running , flying with the adventure . Eragon is helped by an archer young warrior (Garrett Hedlund) and a king of a remote tribe named Ajihad (Dijimon Honsou) . They team up and band together and free themselves to the beautiful princess (Sienna Gullory) confronting weird monsters and taking on king's tyranny (John Malkovich) .

This amazing story attempts at creating a real fantasy but is compromised by borrowing elements from ¨Dragonheart¨, ¨Dragon Slayer¨ and ¨Lord of the Rings¨ and other latter-day movies . Film blends witchcraft and wizardry , adventures , battles and is extremely fun and amusing . Stimulating action set pieces illuminate the full-blown adventures of Eragon and his Dragon . Casting is frankly well , giving enjoyable performances . Convincing special effects by Industrial Light Magic (George Lucas's owner) bring dragon to life with spectacular images . Work on Dragon took more a year and does seem authentic . Patrick Doyle's soaring musical score is wonderful and colorful cinematography by Hugh Johnson . Picture is beautifully made with phenomenal production values and rousing production design in charge of Wolf Kroeger. The motion picture was marvellously directed by Stephen Fangmeier . As of 2015, this remains the first and only film directed by Stefen , who's mostly known for doing visual effects work on Terminator 2 (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993), and as the second unit director on Galaxy Quest (1999) . It's a unqualified success accounting for one of the greatest dragons in picture story .

Hi. I went to the theater today and saw Eragon (well duh, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this comment) and came on here to read what other people thought of it. I was stunned to find not one good comment in a gigantic trash pile of supposedly witty remarks and reasons on how the movie "sucked". I have not read the book myself (I know I'm going to get bombed for this in a reply later), but I thought the movie was totally awesome, and deserves to be acknowledged as a piece of cinematic art, despite the fact it is merely one and a half hours long or so, but who cares? I certainly don't, and look forward eagerly to the sequel.

Maybe I shall read the book someday, just to see what you people are talking about. I look forward to your well-written protest messages in my in-box later, though I did not mean to offend anyone with this comment. Bye-bye.

How to describe a movie based on a lovely book, that could have had a wonderful franchise, but was so hurriedly done, and so poorly directed as to become a horrible flop? First lets say that while the book has some flaws, this movie is really a disservice to it; a more or less complex plot is reduced to its bare elements making it a very predictable ordeal (as any other story would), the photography doesn't reach the standard set by LOTR or HP, becoming quite bland, the casting -while good on the stronger characters (Brom, Durza, Galbatorix)- is really lacking, particularly on critical characters like Murtagh and Arya, and the music -so critical to convey the emotions of the movie- is so corny and clumsily placed that rather than enhance takes away from the experience. So little works on this movie and so many details are ruined using the cheapest tricks, that any sequel would never make it to the big screen (more so when critical plot points were stripped from the movie).

Having read and enjoyed the books with my 11 year old son, we had high hopes and were both devastated with this ... thing promoted as a movie.

It is indeed a sad, sad adaptation, a proof that some movie execs in its eagerness to make a quick buck have indeed killed what could have been a geese of golden eggs.

Hopefully Mr. Fangmeier will go back to do special effects and never return as a movie director. At least I know that I will never see a movie made by him again.