The story of Eragon takes place in a fictional land which is protected by fire breathing dragons and the ones who ride them. These brave men and women are called Dragonriders. They have a telepathic connection to their dragons, and communicate by thought rather than speech.
In the not too distant past, one Dragonrider grew hungry for power and killed all of the other riders and their dragons. He then crowned himself king and ruled the land with an iron fist. High taxes, forced conscription, poverty and oppression became the norm for the people of this land.
As the story opens, a young woman has stolen a stone from the king and is riding for her life. The king's henchmen, led by the shade Durza, close in on her, so she magically sends the stone to another part of the forest. It is found by a young farm boy named Eragon. The stone turns out not to be a stone, but an egg, which hatches into a dragon. The farm boy and his dragon, Saphira, become the last hope of the people of this land.
Now, I have not read the book, so I can only judge by the movie. The book was written by a 15 year old boy named Christopher Paolini, and you can tell. The dialogue is cliche and the humor juvenile. Even the names he gives the characters sound childish. Compare Paolini's "Urgals" to Tolken's "Uruk Hai." Compare Paolini's "Varden" to Tolkien's "Rohirrim". It leaves a lot to be desired.
The hero is rather unbelievable. A farm boy who suddenly becomes an adept warrior who leads and army of people much older than him into battle isn't credible. A dragon who grows from a hatchling to a dragon big enough to ride in the space of 5 minutes just stretches the imagination a little too far. Yes, I know it's fantasy, but even in fantasy, the story has to be believable, as if in that fantasy world, these things really could happen.
The characters never truly develop. I mean, the boy learns to do magic, but his character remains shallow and superficial. What about his growth as a boy becoming a man? His development of character as a human being? This kind of depth is barely hinted at, and never truly develops.
Probably the worst part of this movie is that there is not an original idea anywhere in it. It's like the author took a copy of Lord of the Rings, and a copy of The Dragonriders of Pern, and put them into a blender. He threw in a dash of Star Wars, changed the names, and viola, you have Eragon. The boy Eragon is easily a combination of Luke Skywalker and Frodo Baggins. Brom the Storyteller is no more than a shadowy imitation of Aragorn. Even the final battle scene was almost a direct copy of the battle of Helm's Deep. Honestly, I kept expecting Theoden to pop out of somewhere and declare, "The horn of Hamm Hammerhand will sound in the deep one last time".
Eragon is not a bad movie, if you like shallow characters and pedantic and predictable plots, but if you've ever watched The Lord Of The Rings, you may get the feeling you've seen this story before--and in much better form.
4 comments:
Speaking as someone who has read the book, I was sorely disappointed in the movie as well. To me, it seemed that someone just read the back of the book and decided to make a movie based on that information alone. It's a much better book than movie, I assure you.
This reminds me of the Pern stories by Anne McCaffery. In jr. high we read "The Smallest Dragonboy" which was excellent.
Amber, while I haven't read the entire book, I did read a few paragraphs, and wasn't that impressed. Not impressed enough to buy it.
Lou, I've real almost all of the Dragonriders of Pern books. I think this book copies a lot from those.
I've actually read both Eragon and Eldest (Eldest is worse). I can see why someone who isn't terribly familiar with other fantasy works might like them. It has the flavor of the fantastical that makes fantasy so appealing.
That said, the books were every bit as derivative as the movie, and only barely more realistic. Eragon goes from a novice to a fabulous sword fighter (even with his off hand) in two months. All horses are stallions - and can apparently run at top speed for days at a time without dropping over dead. (Zombie horses that reproduce asexually, it's the only answer!) Eragon's horrifically poor family (poor medieval peasants), lives in a two story house, where Eragon has his own bedroom, and they have a stable.
As to the character issue - any character whose description could logically end every other sentence with "because he's just so special.", needs a revisit by the editing fairy.
And as noted, Eldest was worse. Much worse. I haven't dared look at Brinsingr.
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