Cutting is not an accurate word to describe what writer Peter Buchman and the editing team did to fit the film version of Eragon into 95 minutes. Butchering is probably a more appropriate term. The film, which is based on the novel of the same name written by Christopher Paolini at age 15, is meant to be an adaptation of the book. It really isn't. It does take the central characters of the story and tries to somewhat recreate the action of the book, but the makers' reckless editing pulls off the neat feat of fundamentally changing the story and sapping away most of its interesting features at the same time. The result does look slick, but the film's substance doesn't come remotely close to its high stylistic level.

Ed Speelers takes on the role of Eragon, a farmboy who is thrust into a journey to resume the legacy of a nearly-extinct group called the Dragon Riders when he discovers a dragon egg. When it hatches, he is chosen by the dragon to be its rider. There is one small problem: before Eragon inherits his dragon, the only remaining rider was the evil King Galbatorix (John Malkovich), who was working hard to recuperate all known dragon eggs to prevent the Varden, a rebel group that opposes him, to gain renewed hope and strength from having a new rider integrate its ranks.

Therefore, Galbatorix seeks to kill Eragon as quickly as possible and sends his minions, led by evil Shadow Durza (Robert Carlyle) to do the job. Sensing this, local storyteller Brom (Jeremy Irons), who happens to be a former rider himself, takes Eragon and his dragon away to protect them. And that's the setup for the rest of the story, which includes other characters such as the Elf Arya (Sienna Guillory), whom Eragon rescues from the claws of Durza; Varden leader Ajihad (Djimon Honsou); Murtagh (Garrett Hedlund) and blues singer Joss Stone as fortune teller Angela.

The cool thing about being a rider is that there is a telepathic communication between dragon and rider. Eragon's name is Saphira and her voice is that of Rachel Weisz.

Paolini's book is not overly well written, but one quickly notices the depth of the young man's imagination as he reads on. His fascination over his own imaginary, very Lord of The Rings-like universe was contagious. Eragon the film circumsizes his story to a point where it warrants the kind of disavowal A Clockwork Orange writer Anthony Burgess gave Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of his book.

Modifying a novel story significantly for the purpose of fitting a movie script within a certain time frame has been done before, successfully I might add, but Buchman's Eragon fails at that. Paolini's novel was partly about Eragon and Saphira gradually maturing and coming of age together. The movie is in such a hurry that it swaps evolution for instant metamorphosis. The lack of an ongoing evolutionary process contributes to the feeling we get of the action being rushed and the movie itself being botched.

Another striking problem that plagues the film is that it fails to incorporate an important nuance from the book. Paolini was adamant that the fight between the Varden and Galbatorix's troops be above all a struggle for power. This position is far more nuanced than the movie's take on it, which instantly identifies the Varden as trustworthy and their fight with Galbatorix as a cliche battle between good and evil. You could forgive Paolini's inconsistent writing quality because he imagined such an intricate political struggle within the Varden about which Eragon and Saphira feel constantly uneasy. It was all very interesting. Without several elements such as this one, most of them missing from this film, this is not a story worth telling and it feels like a cheap version of the Lord of The Rings.

The movie also doesn't take the time to develop a critical central character: Brom. In the novel, he is Eragon's mentor. In the film, he doesn't even get enough screen time to be interesting.

In to top it off, the screenplay is less than inspired and the acting not excellent. Ed Speelers is rather bland as Eragon and Sienna Guillory, a capable young actress, is reduced to looking pretty and wincing as she is tortured by Durza. The movie eliminates the tumultuous relationship between Eragon and Murtagh as they simply go through a few scenes filled with generic dialogue and the one interesting twist for Murtagh, although quite obvious in the book, feels almost meaningless here. Most of the relevant lines come from Jeremy Irons' Brom, but these lines are not even clever, so this fact is only somewhat important in the end. Speaking of Irons, someone should have told director Stefen Fangmeier that Irons can be great, but you have to keep him on a leash to prevent him from going dramatically over the top a la Dungeons and Dragons. Well, job not done. Irons goes over the top on a few occasions. Djimon Honsou goes through his lines as though he'd rather have been somewhere else. The one bright spot in the film is Robert Carlyle, the typical movie villain, as Durza. His performance is perfectly calibrated.

Eragon really is the movie version of a research paper done at the last minute. It certainly looks good, with its great special effects and fight scenes, but it omits many of the things that made the novel interesting, as if its makers, due to lack of time to read the actual book, based the script on the jacket note. With its cast, more was to be expected, but Eragon stands as additional proof that there is no such thing as making something out of nothing in acting. The actors have little to work with and the final product doesn't reflect positively on any of them, except for Carlyle. It is also proof that the one essential component of a successful adaptation is good judgement when choosing what to keep or cut. Eragon is the first installment of Paolini's Inheritance trilogy, and since the other installments are likely to come out on film, we should all hope that these movie makers catch up on their reading before giving us the next two.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8