Based on the best-selling novel by Christopher Paolini, the precocious youth who penned the novel at 15, Eragon may well be a case of movie people hijacking a perfectly good story and running amok with it. I confess I have not read the novel. My 11-year-old niece has just started the book and it will take some time before I can prise it from her fingers. I understand that the author is finishing the last instalment of the Inheritance trilogy (with Eragon as its starting point), and that makes me think the novels deserve a thorough read. I can only comment on the movie version which, I’m sad to say, appealed to my niece a lot more than it did to me.

17-year-old farm boy Eragon lives in a land of destitution and oppression. Happening upon a large blue ‘stone’ in a place where he’s not supposed to hunt, Eragon takes it to the local butcher to trade for the best cut of meat. But the butcher, hearing from where the ‘stone’ hails, refuses to have anything to do with it. Subsequently, the blue egg hatches into a baby dragon. Turns out the egg was sent across the miles magically by a female elfish warrior (Sienna Guillory as Arya) just before she’s captured by a sorcerous villain. And since a dragon egg will only hatch when it senses its potential rider nearby, that must mean that Eragon is the chosen one.

Thing is, although many moons ago, dragons and dragon-riders were a dime a dozen in Eragon’s land of Alagaesia, things aren’t so hunky-dory any more. No indeed. Not since one dragon-rider turned nasty and killed all the other riders and their dragons, and crowned himself King Galbatorix (John Malkovich under-used and sniffy about it).

So what’s a budding dragon-rider to do? Find himself a mentor tout-de-suite, that’s what. Enters Jeremy Irons as Brom, the unwilling and put-upon lay-about who turns out to be…wait for this…an ex-dragon-rider himself! You could’ve knocked me down with a feather. Anyhow, the two engage in some male bonding and before we know it, they’re knee-deep in villains, especially that nasty sorcerous sidekick of the King, what’s-his-name, Durza (played by Robert Carlyle with relish and a lot of garish Hallowe’en make-up).

The good guys acquire a young friend along the way, one with a promising back-story, no less, and they all team up with these rebels, see? And there’s a magical language that Eragon must learn, a language of the elves. You see? Dear reader, I think you see. Too well. The whole baloney smacks of a ring cycle, and I’m not just talking Wagner.

Directed by the delightfully-named Stefen Fangmeier, chosen no doubt for his expertise at visual effects (Lemony Snicket and The Perfect Storm), Eragon proves to be less, much less, than the sum of its parts. And when those parts include poor acting and inane dialogue so risible it took great mental resolve to keep a straight face, it was all I could do not to hit my head against the back of the seat in front of me.

To be fair, Eragon does have one redeeming feature, and it’s a big one. It boasts some of the best CGI effects ever seen on the big screen, and considering the leaps and bounds this aspect of cinema has made in recent years, this is no small praise. Forget the bland and eminently forgettable Speleers in the title role. The star of the movie is unequivocally the dragon Saphira. She comes magnificently to life onscreen, a creature created by Industrial Light and Magic (Star Wars) and WETA Digital (Lord of the Rings) and is the undisputed star of the show. Even at rest, she is stunning, and in motion, she is astounding. The scenes of the dragon flying and crashing to earth—these are so realistic that I would not be surprised if the younger audience members took the dragon for real. I almost did.

Despite it being geared towards young adolescents, there is a darkness and violence in Eragon that makes it unsuitable for the more sensitive youngsters, so parents need to be aware of this. Personally, I found the Urgals very scary and disgusting, with their creepy-crawly faces, and my niece had to watch part of the movie from behind her jacket. All said and done, Eragon is for the junior fantasy enthusiasts, around 10-12 or so, if they haven’t already started on Lord of the Rings, in which case even they would find it a lite and considerably less satisfying version of the real thing.

Two stars rounded up to three for the dragon.


Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12