Sunday, April 29, 2007

movie: "Eragon" (2/5 stars) 2006

Eragon is a kid's fantasy movie based on the popular book by Christopher Paolini.

I thought that the movie was ok, but affected strongly by a large number of continuity errors. The person responsible for continuity was either fired, or incompetent. Is it day time or dark outside? Is it raining or sunny? Does that dragon armor have eye holes or not? Was it REALLY 4 days ride in the opposite direction?

All of your questions will be disappointingly answered in this weak fantasy movie that does nothing for the genre and will end up in the cheap bin shortly beside "Ladyhawke" and "Dungeons and Dragons", which is too bad, since it could have been really good.

Notable guest appearances include Jeremy Irons as the mentor, Robert Carlyle as the very scary evil wizard (best character), the overacting John Malkovich as the unfortunately named Galbatorix (they said the name far too often - his dragon looks cool though) and the voice of Rachel Weisz as Saphira, the good dragon. None of these actors help the movie past a 2 star rating though.

I feel bad about it, since it is a rich genre with lots of potential, as Peter Jackson showed with Lord of the Rings.

2 comments:

Violet said...

I quite liked LadyHawke! I thought the idea of the two lovers being turned into completely incompatible animals was so romantic and tragic...

As for Eragon, I wasn't expecting to like it, so maybe I was biased against it from the start. But it was so very Star Wars in a LoTR setting.

Determinist said...

"Ladyhawke" is also a 2 star rating. Great movie, but the sound track completely kills it. If you don't think so, I suggest that you watch it again. I had to sit through a 2nd time to believe it. :-)