Cinema - Eragon

It would not be ungenerous to say that the 2006 film, Eragon, has not been well-received. ‘Derivative’ and ‘unimaginative’, it has been described as a hotchpotch of every example of the fantasy genre from The Lord of the Rings to Star Wars. But, as the New York Times points out, this ‘is what happens when misguided studio executives option a novel written by a teenager (Christopher Paolini) with a head full of Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K. Le Guin.’ And this is no resentful analogy - Paolini wrote the novel when he was just fifteen whilst he was on a break between home-schooling and college. After being picked up and re-published by Alfred A. Knopf, Eragon - The Book enjoyed no considerable success. But, it seems they pushed the formula too far in its journey to the big screen. Giving the script-writing job to the man famous for bringing us “Jurassic Park III (apparently there was one), probably didn’t help either.

Plotwise, the tagline 'One boy… One dragon… A World of Adventure' says it all, though a wealth of unintentional comedy is to be had from some unfortunate puns on the glory days of dragon riding, (where oppression was fought ‘astride magnificent beasts’). But as this is a film for children, hopefully they will be young enough not to notice its many flaws. Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle star. ER