|
 Eragon (Two-Disc Special Edition) :: 1570032483
Description
| Product Description |
|
While it owes much of its appeal and appearance to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Eragon can stand on its own as an enjoyable fantasy for younger viewers. Faithfully adapted from the bestselling novel by teenage author Christopher Paolini, this boy-and-his-dragon tale offers clean, fast-paced family entertainment without compromising the darker qualities of Paolini's novel (the first in what is known as the "Inheritance" trilogy). The plot centers on 17-year-old peasant farmboy Eragon (played by appealing newcomer Ed Speleers) who discovers a mysterious blue object that turns out to be an egg that eventually hatches to reveal Saphira, a blue-scaled dragon that quickly grows to full-size. According to prophecy, Eragon is destined to be a dragon-rider like those who once protected a benevolent kingdom, thus reviving an ancient conflict against the army of King Galbatorix (John Malkovich), a former dragon rider who turned to evil, now in alliance with a! dark-magic "Shade" sorcerer named Durza (Robert Carlyle). While the movie serves up familiar fantasy elements and offers little if anything new to fans of the genre (or anyone who's read the books of Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K. Le Guin), it's visually impressive (especially the dragon scenes, with Rachel Weisz providing the telepathic "voice" of Saphira) and full of timeless wisdom, much of it delivered by Eragon's heroic mentor Brom (Jeremy Irons), himself a former dragon rider with memories of past battles and hope for Eragon's future. Add a fair warrior-maiden named Arya (Sienna Guillory) and you've got all the ingredients for a worthwhile (if not particularly original) fantasy that points directly to a sequel. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up to individual viewers to decide. --Jeff Shannon Eragon Extras Christopher Paolini talks to us about his book and film inspirations and makes recommendations for fans of Eragon, click here to view the complete list.
Build and customize your very own dragon with "Volksdragon".
Beyond Eragon |
Reviews
Customer feedback
|
|
Voting |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Author: Guest
I read the book for this a few months ago. Even though it wasn't the greatest book, it did have a lot of good parts to it. Unfortunately, all of the best parts of the book were removed from the film, and replaced with mediocre parts, at best.
In the book, there were Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and a bit of magic. I the movie, there were no Elves, no Dwarves, the Dragon was a flying chicken (i.e. feathers, instead of scales), and the magic was lost.
The acting in the movie was poor, and the plot was rather thin. You didn't get a chance to feel for any of the characters, since there was very little in character development.
All in all, there isn't really anything that can be done to redeem this movie.
|
Author: Guest
Okay, Amazon really needs to add an option for people to give items a zero-star rating. While I loved the book and eagerly awaited the movie, I have to say that this movie really sucked, and at some points, it was laughable (and if you've read the book, you know this isn't a comedy).
This has to be the absolute WORST adaptation ever done, and Christoper Paolini should have the option to fire the entire creative team that turned his book into a disgusting piece of trash. The book was around 400 pages, and the movie was only about 90 minutes, so I'll let you do the math on trying to figure out how much of the book they were actually able to retain and do the storyline justice. Answer: Not much.
With the right script and adaptation of the original manuscript, this could have been a really good movie. The book had so much potential, but none of that translated into the movie. If I had a choice of buying this DVD and some version of "Elmo's World," I would probably get the Elmo disc, because at least _that_ is supposed to be funny.
Save your cash. Don't buy this DVD, and certainly don't rent it, even on NetFlix.
|
Author: Guest
I had much higher hopes for this movie. However, in this case, it is just another movie that takes names and very basic plot and then proceeds to write an altogether different story. I usually deal well with the differences between book and movie, but this was too much. As an example, in the book Brom is heroic, albeit secretive-- yet in the movie, he is pathetic and shameful (I rather pitied this Brom, where I admired the other). I think they will have a supremely difficult time making a sequel to this movie that even remotely resembles "Eldest" because they left out or changed SO many things (including several characters) that set the table in preparation for the second installment.
On the other hand my two older sons (aged 7 and 9) loved this movie and thought, "It's was totally awesome , Mom-- can we watch it again?" Take that as you will, but keep in mind, as I do, that they have not, as of yet, read the book.
Summary: If you have read and loved Christopher Paolini's books, you will probably not care much for this movie (ie-- rent it, don't buy it). Otherwise, you might enjoy this movie if you care for movies similar to movies such as "Dungeons and Dragons" (the one from 2000), which also ironically stars Jeremy Irons.
|
Author: Guest
This horrendous screen adaptation of Christopher Paolini's brilliant work deviates so far from the book it's practically unrecognizable. I see the majority of reviewers here and other places like Netflix who gave it a good rating did not read the book, which is fortunate for them, because if you've read it, watching this movie will make you want to pull your hair out.
About the only similarities between the movie and the book are the names of the characters and the fact that it, indeed, features a dragon.
One reviewer tried to defend this film by stating they did the best they could with a 470 page book, but the Harry Potter books are far longer and while they may have to cut a lot of the storyline out of those movies, they still manage to keep it within JK Rowling's vision.
Watching Eragon, one of the things I just could not get past enough to tolerate this movie, let alone enjoy it, was the fact the Saphira sounds like a teenage girl, or even sometimes a sexy young vixen. I was expecting a dragon to sound a little more....well, "dragon-like"...a little more "other-worldly." And because Eragon and Saphira communicate telepathically, I was expecting the dialogue between them to have it's own unique sound as well...something that would make it obvious to the viewers that what was being said could only be heard between the two of them. I mean, come on! Movie makers have been doing this for decades: Such as when a character in a movie is thinking something in his head that none of the other characters can hear... Would that have been so difficult? The fact that the film-makers couldn't even pay this much attention to such an obvious aspect of this movie gives you an idea of how much else they didn't bother with.
The only thing they got right was to cast Jeremy Irons as Brom. The character who played Eragon was easy on the eyes, but he really needs some more acting lessons....or maybe just a better script. And I will admit that the special effects people behind Saphira did a good job. She may not sound like a dragon, but she indeed looks like one.
My 8-year-daughter was so disappointed in this movie she was ready to chuck the DVD out the window before I stopped her, and she is really NOT hard to please. In fact, I think this is probably the first movie she hasn't liked.
I will be amazed if these same film makers have the nerve to make more movies from the rest of the Inheritance series. I think we'd all be better off if someone ELSE tried re-making THIS one first before moving on to any sequels.
|
Author: Guest
I'll give the CGI team Four Stars for the Dragon Effects, especially the flight scenes through the river valley and the final aerial battle at the end, but the movie and story are the worst. Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are seminal stories which succeed as tales because they stand as archetypes; so both stories are nothing new (Star Wars and LOTR), just retold Jungian/Campbell tales done in a superb, fresh manner. Thus you might argue what's the difference if Eragon does the same thing? Star Wars and LOTR are STILL AROUND! With parallels in Eragon SO CLOSE to these two stories and films, I really can't believe there's no intellectual copyright infringement lawsuit pending...bottom line: the movie is boring: I literally pressed fastforward from 56 minutes to the end and the aerial battle.
|
Send to Friend
Send to friend
|
|
