Eragon - One of the better book adaptations by Hollywood

Introduction
Fantasy Fiction is the current flame of Hollywood movie makers. After the astounding success of Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the mega success of the Harry Potter Series, Hollywood was looking for more Fantasy Fiction. So the Inheritance Trilogy written by Christopher Paolini seems to have Stefen Fangmeier and lo and behold we have the first movie of the trilogy Eragon.

The Plot
Eragon (Ed Speelers) is a farm boy whose life is turned upside down when he ventures into the forest in the middle of night and finds a shining blue stone. The blue stone soon hatches and out comes Safira (voiced by Rachel Weisz) a blue dragon.

Eragon turns overnight from a farm boy to a dragon rider whose mission is to end the rule of the tyrant king Galbatorix (John Malkovich). Galbatorix had eliminated all the dragon riders and wanted to get hold of this last dragon and Rider to keep the whole empire in his control.

Eragon gets support from Brom (Jeremy Irons) who is a ex-Rider who disguises as a story teller. Brom becomes Eragon's mentor as he helps Eragon find the strengths of a Dragon Rider and prepares him for the tough battle ahead with Galbatorix.

In the meanwhile Galbatorix sends his evil henchmen led by Durza (Robert Carlyle) to go and get Eragon. Durza with his evil powers tries to get hold of Eragon and in the process manages to kill off Brom, but Eragon manages to reach the rebels.

Durza, then gathers Galbatorix army and prepares for a battle with the rebels who are now led by a Dragon Rider. Does Durza succeed in his ambitions? Does the Dragon Rider help the rebels overcome Durza? Check out Eragon for the details.

Critic's Viewpoint
I usually take movies made from books with a pinch of salt. This is especially true after seeing the last edition of the Harry Potter series which I thought was awful. Given that, I think Eragon was great movie adaptation of the book.

For starters, the movie stuck to the book religiously. It covered all the major portions of the book very aptly and cut down on the portions from the book that were too descriptive, yet the plot was not disconnected like what happened in the last edition of HP series. Next up, the locations selected were too good. The scenic beauty was made all the more beautiful as they were able to show the flying vision from the eyes of the dragon.

Coming to the animation, I found that Saphira the dragon was done brilliantly. Right from its color to its mannerism, it embodied the description given in the book. The only let down for me was the voice of Rachel Weisz for the dragon. I thought the voice was weak and lacked both emotion and conviction. I would have preferred some one with a bit more verve like Whoopi Goldberg.

The performances were quite decent, though Ed Speelers was too much more cheery in the movie than what the novel described Eragon as. I think Ed still has some way to go if he has to justify his selection for the title role. He looks fresh and good as a Dragon Rider, but he still needs a bit more emotions to really pull off the show. I think the best performance of the movie was given by Robert Carlyle as Durza. He looked evil and sinister and his performances and dialog delivery added more of evilness on the screen.

Coming to direction, I think Stefen Fangmeier has done a great job of sticking to the plot and presenting it in a great manner. If anything, I just felt that some of the scenes were too dark which meant things were not very visible, I would have loved a bit more visibility in these scenes. Of course, Eragon being the first novel of Christopher Paolini, offered Stefen a good chance to make a movie that is more attractive than the novel. Having said that this is also Stefen's directorial debut and for that the movie has come out excellently.

Summary
Eragon - the movie is a good compliment to Eragon - the novel. Now I am looking forward to the next movie in the series Eldest.

I would give this directorial debut movie of Stefen Fangmeier a high 4 rating.

Eragon - The Novel
Eragon is the first book in the Inheritance Trilogy written by Christopher Paolini. This is also the first book that Paolini has authored. Check out the complete review of the book at: http://www.epinions.com/content_240926166660

Eragon - The Website
These days most of the movies have a decent website. I make it a point to visit the website to look out for some goodies. I just loved the Eragon website and thought that I should share this with you. Check the site out: http://www.eragonmovie.com (As links to sites outside Epinions would not be rendered as urls, you need to copy this onto your browser to go to the URL.)