Review: Eragon the Movie

For fans of the best-selling young adult book Eragon, the news of a movie adaptation was exciting indeed. Christopher Paolini's sword-and-sorcery fantasy epic book of the same title was the first installment in his Inheritance Trilogy, and his fans eagerly awaited the opening of the movie. Unfortunately, if you've read the book, you'll be disappointed in the movie. And if you haven't read the book, you're likely to be lost.

Eragon tells the story of a seventeen year old farm lad of the same name (Edward Speleers), living in a land where the King's men steal and oppress at will and telling the legend of the Dragon Riders, once the protectors of justice and good, is outlawed. At the start of both book and movie, elf warrior-princess Aria (Sienna Guillory) has just stolen one of the last remaining dragon eggs from King Galbatorix (John Malkovich). Cornered by the King's men and pet sorcerer Durza (Robert Carlyle), Aria calls on her powers to send the egg far away. Eragon finds it, takes it home, and the big blue jellybean hatches into an utterly adorable baby dragon that marks his hand.

That's just about all the book and the movie have in common.

Rather than a white scar on the palm--a detail that's important, as Eragon becomes known by an elven title meaning 'white palm' in the book--he gets this cinnamon-bun looking brown swirl. The baby dragon, Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weisz), grows from baby to young adult literally in moments. The special effect of her moulting in flames as she soars through the clouds on her first flight is nifty, but it completely skips some rather important aspects of the book--such as, oh, Eragon and Saphira bonding? She lands, Eragon almost wets himself, and suddenly they're conversing mind-to-mind. Saphira is a beautiful creature, but isn't true to the book--she's got feathers? What happened to the sapphire-scales from whence came her name? I can't help but think those look a big flammable, but the design of the dragon aside, she's a lovely special effect.