dir. Stefen Fangmeier
A young farm boy, Eragon, stumbles upon a mysterious blue stone which soon hatches into a dragon. Thus, he is pulled in to a great adventure to save the kingdom of Alagaësia from the evil Galbatorix. These two sentences characterise Eragon – top level exposition conveying the most shallow “chosen one” fantasy beats, hoping that bringing in a few funny-sounding names will create the illusion of depth. The plot is so formulaic as to essentially be Star Wars (the young hero’s mentor is killed while he searches to rescue a captured princess, and they also meet a loveable rogue). The abundance of funny-sounding names and vague references to elves and dwarves do nothing to convey the world as real or worth caring about. This is further underlined by the cinematography and CGI, where everything looks oddly saturated and constantly fake. With the exception of Robert Carlyle as a ridiculously camp villain, no one seems to put any effort into their acting; as Eragon, Ed Speleers seems to use one facial expression the entire time. There were obviously plans for sequels, but this film is so shallow and forgettable, it’s no surprise they didn’t happen. Eragon is about as effective, and utilises as much effort, as taking the word “dragon” and changing the “D” to an “E”.
BMDb 