These Aren't the Dragons You're Looking For
Eragon Remixes a Classic SF Film as Fantasy

I've learned quite a few cliches about writing over the years. There is nothing new under the sun, they say. All writers borrow heavily from what was written before. Whether or not these are true, the plagiarism police should consider arresting someone for the film Eragon. I've never read the book, so I can't speak to how closely the film resembles the novel. But I do know it resembles something else: a thirty year-old movie titled Star Wars.

Eragon
Eragon (Ed Speleers) and Arya (Sienna Guillory) marvel at the dragon Saphira. (20th Century Fox, 2006)
Directed by: Stefen Fangmeier
Written by: Peter Buchman, based on the novel by Christopher Paolini.
Starring: Edward Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich, Djimon Hounsou, and Rachel Weisz

Rated PG (for fantasy violence, intense battle sequences and some frightening images)
Running time: 104 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 3 out of 10.

The resemblance between Eragon and Star Wars is evident right from the start. As Arya (Sienna Guillory) escapes from the clutches of a dark wizard, she spirits away a valuable object in hopes that it will fall into the right hands. ("Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.")

A young farm boy named Eragon (Ed Speleers) finds the object while hunting in the forest and takes it home. The object turns out to be an egg. When it hatches, the young dragon imprints itself on Eragon and he becomes its rider.

Of course, the king wants the egg and demands that his wizard, a Shade named Durza (Robert Carlyle), get it back. Durza's men hunt down anyone connected with the egg and soon kill Eragon's Uncle Garrow. (No Aunt Beru. Sorry.) When the men fail to find the egg or Eragon, Durza kills his own man and promotes the next. ("You have failed me for the last time, Admiral.")

Meanwhile, Eragon has met up with a kindly old warrior (think "Jedi") who was once a dragon rider himself. Brom (Jeremy Irons) takes it upon himself to train Eragon while helping him travel to the rebellion, a group of people called the Varden. Of course, they have to rescue the princess, get her to safety, and stop the dark wizard Durza from crushing the rebellion once and for all.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Throughout the film, my wife and I were trading lines from Star Wars at the appropriate times. As Brom and Eragon approached a small village, I said "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." When Eragon rescued Arya, my wife asked "Aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper?" Sadly, the film allows comparisons to be made quite easily.

Star Wars references aside, the film has one thing going for it. It has one of the best representations of dragons that I have seen in films. Better than Dragonheart. Better than Harry Potter. Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weisz) is an elegant and powerful looking dragon. The work on her is nearly flawless. (Less so when a CGI version of Eragon is perched on her back.) The realism of the dragon in Eragon is a huge leap over the groundbreaking work done on Dragonheart a mere decade ago.

The performances by the human characters are not quite as engaging. John Malkovich does an impressive turn as the evil King Galbatorix. Having seen him in so many odd roles, though (Art School Confidential, for instance), it's difficult to take him seriously. Irons may be the biggest saving grace in this film, but he doesn't have a large role.

The chemistry between Eragon and Arya is perplexing. Are they supposed to be romantically inclined? Are we going to find out later they are brother and sister? Is she his mother? It's all kind of icky.

At the conclusion, too many loose ends remain. Yes, a mission is accomplished and a bad guy seems to be dead. Nevertheless, the king is still in power. Arya is on her way back to her people to lead them. Eragon still knows nothing about the fate of his mother.

A sequel is obviously needed. The biggest downfall of the film is that it is so clearly the first chapter of a trilogy. Unlike Star Wars (or Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, or any other film series), Eragon does not seem complete. While it may make sense as part of a completed trilogy, by the end of the film I found that I didn't care.