Eragon - Edward Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich

Posted on 2007 under Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Riding with ‘Eragon’
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

Starring: Edward Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich
Directed by: Stefen Fangmeier

‘Eragon’ is a technically accomplished tale about a new dragon rider destined to save his people from the rule of an evil king. Many of the film’s thematic elements are quite derivative. Amidst the mostly believable special effects surface a texture of familiar epics - a rehash of familiar fantasy elements, this time, with a dragon in the limelight.

For those who love the fantasy genre and themes involving swords, magic, and mythical elements and creatures (I count myself in) may enjoy the very manifestations of these things in this movie, but it seems to be ending on that ‘feast the eyes with merely seeing them on the big screen, and nothing much is left after that.’ The actual thought may be a pleasant enough fantastical adventure, but it inevitably invites comparisons to other movies and stories, primarily because of its very similar presentation. The mythic journey of the dragon rider to discover the truth behind his heritage and battle evil to save his people draws so closely to the storylines of a number of famous fantasy epics. Generally, ‘Eragon’ revolves around a fantastical milieu with the more-than-passing resemblance to ‘Star Wars’ in terms of story and ‘Lord of the Rings’ in terms of look and music.

Although possessed by some captivating storybook moments and a good enough CG dragon, this big budget fantasy flick lacks some complexity in its emotional load. There is no requisite soul to make this epic soar beyond its CG-rendered fire-breather. Moreover, there is no enough warmth and empathy for its characters. Any hint of narrative complexity or character development is wiped out by the film’s slavishly straightforward storyline. Its special effects may seem state-of-the-art (with its director being a veteran special effects wizard, it is rather expected to be scaled on a really good level), however, it never shows anything the viewers haven’t seen before. The lack of screen magic pulls the film down, losing much of the supposed visual dazzle because of lack of narrative momentum and its loose moments not being able to compensate much at all. It becomes too raw for a film epic — nearly looking like an episode meant for the Disney or Hallmark Channel as a fantasy offer for mere television consumption.

This adaptation of Christopher Paolini’s best-seller presents nothing new to the hero’s story archetype. At the core of its derivative mythology, the characters are full-on clichés. They perform with wooden and monotonous lines from a script with lame dialogues and they are given no time to develop as the plot races from one conflict to another. The weakness of this large-scale fantasy comes from its key elements being too renamed rather then re-imagined. Main character Eragon portrayed by Edward Speleers may initially have a general potential. However, his end performance for this movie turns out to be quite bland to the point that he gets overshadowed by his dragon and human co-stars, especially with Jeremy Irons playing the role of Brom. Irons attempts to still act for the film’s betterment despite some very lame lines from the script. Robert Carlyle’s efforts as Durza tries to do with what he can work with though the script has lots of recycled and non-powerful lines that further let down most of the performances. No doubt, John Malkovich is a well-respected actor. However, in ‘Eragon,’ his role as King Galbatorix mainly keeps a straight face just like Djimon Hounsou acting out the character of Ajihad — amidst such celebrated acting talents, they don’t contribute much to the establishing of a cinematic epic with a heart. Even Sienna Guillory playing the role of Arya has wooden dialogues and she just tries to compensate on some non-verbal means and carrying her costumes for her to surface on screen. Rachel Weisz gives the dragon Saphira enough charm, charisma, and strong will. But some people who have great interest and much resources known about a dragon may find Saphira too child-friendly in looks, words, and overall attitude (well, it may be the filmmakers’ intention though). The generic hero-questing doesn’t lead to much heart that even the most action-packed and most dramatic scenes won’t even give a small twitch on the viewer’s skin. No suspense, sense of urgency, excitement, nor heart-pumping actions can actually be felt by the audience for the entire stretch of the 104-minute film. Actually, the script repeats too much ideas and drags down the actors and actresses, mainly by throwing periods into the middle of a sentence: ‘Take care of Saphira. Without her. You’ll find that life is hardly worth living.’

With most of the work going into the techie stuff, the actors seem left pretty much on their own. And even the juxtaposition of shots lack good establishments and significant pacing — making the film lose much on the actual filmic storytelling and digging of emotions. Worse, the performances, whether from first time lead Speelers to the renowned actor Malkovich, have ended up as if they are trying to look involved while attempting to act through — but it never works through. Even death or hugging or any other significant form of touching or looking at each other won’t make the viewers touched. And so, personally, while I was walking out of the moviehouse, I find myself saying, ‘It’s like a work of a first time director, focusing more on the technical stuff and losing much grip on the emotions and the actual storytelling.’ It turns out, he is a first time director nevertheless. Stefen Fangmeier is a longtime Industrial Light and Magic veteran, so it’s no surprise that the effects are considerably good and well-detailed. However, in this directorial debut of Fangmeier, he often seems to neglect the non-technical details like plotting, blocking, and establishing the shots to push forward the story and touch the hearts of the viewers (whether small-scale or large-scale, accordingly to the needs and visions for the particular scenes and plotpoints). And such are mainly the weak points that first-time directors suffer with.

‘Eragon’ may serve as a form of an escapist entertainment as long as no one expects too much. It mainly reflects a pioneer episode of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Harry Potter’ dropped into a ‘Lord of the Rings’ context. Heroes, villains, magic, love, honor, and destiny abound, but there is little complexity and subtext in the aesthetic, cinematic, social, cultural or political aspects, all of which could have possibly leveled up the film’s quality. Personally, as a fan of mythology, epics, dragons, swords, and battle scenes, I have been really disappointed. For all the promise of breathing fire and clashing swords, ‘Eragon’ doesn’t generate much heat. It becomes a dull fare. Now, I believe this film has a sequel. And let me say, ‘May it redeem itself… just like with the story of a boy trying to save his people from evil, may its sequel/s save the trilogy from the dullness and weakness of this first offer.’

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Check out my site: Rianne’s Film Blog
Having been bitten by the film bug, I have realized that pain is temporary; film is forever. I’m a free-spirited artist who is in constant search for the ultimate experience in every place-seeking inspirations for every work…

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