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by Willie Waffle

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Eragon

I liked Eragon’s story so much more when it was called Star Wars.  It’s not a horrible movie (at least, not horrible in the Deck The Halls sense), but while watching it, you hear echoes of George Lucas, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout the film instead of focusing on the story.  Heck, I was waiting for a Wookie to pop up. 

Edward Speleers stars as Eragon – a young, innocent, blonde, farm boy living with his Uncle (kind of like Luke Skywalker).  One day, he magically finds a stone in the forest, but it turns out to be a rare dragon egg.  After the egg hatches (and reveals a darn cute little dragon pup), the evil King Galbatorix (John Malkovich) sends his right hand enforcer, a sorcerer named Durza (Robert Carlyle playing the Darth Vader role), to find Eragon and the dragon because their presence could inspire the revolutionary Vardens to reorganize and fight back against him (kind of like the Rebels took on The Empire).  As Durza’s evil forces move in to capture him, a mysterious, grizzled villager, Brom (Jeremy Irons playing the Obi-Wan Kenobi role and being Eragon’s only hope), offers to help Eragon, but there’s more to the eye about Brom than our young hero ever realized (like, maybe he is a Jedi Knight who will teach him the ways of The Force?).

Will Eragon and Brom escape death and make it to the Varden hideout?  Can they save the young lady, Arya (Sienna Guillory, doing her best Princess Leia impression), who stole the egg and started this revolution?  Can they beat Durza?                  

Eragon is a so-so movie that looks cool, captures the audience’s imagination with strong special effects, but will suffer from comparisons to similar movies that came before it, like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (thankfully, it accomplishes in one movie what it took Lord of the Rings to conquer in three 3-hour movies). 

Basing the movie on a novel by Christopher Paolini, director Stefen Fangmeier and the team of writers move the film along at a very quick pace, so you never have a chance to get too bored, and do a decent job of making this fantasy world come to life without making you giggle too much at the crazy names, and, sometimes, crazier performances (but you will giggle a little, especially with the name Galbatorix, which sounds like some secret prescription drug you see on a TV ad during a football game).  However, everyone seems to be trying too hard to make Eragon magical and majestic as Fangmeier fills most scenes with some sort of typical music that feels like it comes from the connect the dots school of film making.    

Worst of all, Fangmeier always seems to come up with some ridiculous, too convenient way to save Eragon and the crew from disaster.  People suddenly show up out of nowhere to save the day, or Eragon develops some skill we never knew he had.  It’s like when a child is playing a game and invents some sort of new rule to avoid losing. 

The acting, much like the rest of Eragon, is not bad, but not exactly stunning either.  Speleers makes for a telegenic lead, but has to be propped up by his more experienced co-stars to make up for his lack of intensity and emotion.  He never captivates the audience, but doesn’t embarrass himself either.  Irons lends an air of class to the proceedings, much like Alec Guinness did for the original Star Wars, as he picks up the best paycheck he has had in a few years.  He makes the most silly and hokey of dialogue (and there is plenty of it here) sound important.  Yet, it’s Malkovich who is out of place in this movie.

You can almost guarantee Malkovich also is doing this one for the cash as his King never leaves the Death Star (I mean castle), and feels more out of place here than Michael “Kramer” Richards at an NAACP convention.  Instead of sounding imposing and dangerous, Malkovich makes Galbatorix sound whiney.  His heart never seems into the performance, which is a shame for an actor who is much better than what he displays on the screen for Eragon.

Eragon will not be a disappointment to fans of the book, but it certainly doesn’t match up with the other amazing movies coming out during the holiday season.

2 Waffles (Out Of 4)

Eragon is rated PG for fantasy violence, intense battle sequences and some frightening images.

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