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Shelf Beauties |
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) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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