Eragon Movie Reiew
Based on the bestselling 2003 novel written by then-teenager Christopher Paolini, "Eragon" is at its core "Star Wars" grafted into Middle-earth. Newcomer Ed Speleers plays Eragon, a coming-of-age farmboy raised by his Uncle Garrow (Alun Armstrong).
After Garrow's death, Eragon is taken under the wing of Obi-Wanish Brom (Jeremy Irons), who tutors him in magic and warfare as they travel to join the rebellious Varden and their fight against the evil Empire.
The twist to the theme is that Eragon discovers a dragon egg, and when it hatches he's literally marked as one of the mythical dragon riders à la the Jedi knights. The dragon, who communicates telepathically with Eragon via the maternal voice of Rachel Weisz, manages to age from near infancy to young adulthood during a single flight.
Screenwriter Peter Buchman similarly truncates the rest of the source material and in so doing fails to adequately develop the relationship between Eragon and his dragon and renders key characters superfluous, such as the charismatic and mysterious Murtagh (Garrett Hedlund, a potentially better choice for Eragon over the ultra-vanilla Speleers). In contrast, an Elven warrior (played luminously by Sienna Guillory) receives extra screen time as eye candy decked out in a single-shoulder bodice and later in body-hugging armor akin to a cheung-sam.
Inevitably, "Eragon" reaches its less-than-epic final battle between the Varden and the Urgals, who despite their monstrous name are disappointingly human. It's here that first-time director and Industrial Light & Magic veteran Stefen Fangmeier finally gets to flex his muscles, but again it's at the expense of the original material as he replaces the book's climactic scene with a dizzying aerial battle featuring Eragon and his dragon against a sorcerer Shade (Robert Carlyle) astride a giant bat.
Given Weta Digital's involvement in "Eragon," comparisons to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy are unavoidable. Such talk would be high praise indeed; unfortunately, any conversation involving "Eragon" is likely to center on its place among the likes of "Dragonheart," "Reign of Fire" and the rest of the mediocre dragon flicks.
- Facial Expression
This is a very nice Closed Up picture showing the beauty of Princess Arya. Here we can see that the camera shot was totally focused on her and you couldnt just take your eyes away from her..
- Close Up
In this pic, we can see that the camera was focusing on the main actor of the movie, Eragon, trying so release a bow from his ancient archery.
- Extreme Close Up
In this extreme close-up shot, we can see that the camera focused on the dragon. The best reason for this shot to happen is that the director is trying to get the viewer's attention by focusing on the dragon.
- Long Shot
In this long shot view, Eragon and his master are cruising through a river. This shot is focused on 2 cast. that is why long shot view are being adapted. - Extreme Long Shot
In this shot, we can see 3 main charactors are in it. They are Eragon, Pricess Arya and the dragon. The reason this is an extreme long shot is there are 3 main charactors in the shot, and the view is on a hill.
2) Special Effect
I could tell from the previews that Eragon was going to suck. The movie just looked awful and even with John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons on board, it looked more like a Sci/Fi Original. I obviously skipped Eragon at the theater, but with the movie out on Blu-Ray, I figured at least the visuals would impress. As it happens, Eragon isn't as bad as I expected, in truth it is much worse and was a total waste of time. I think we all know that "borrowing" elements from other movies is common, but Eragon lifts from so many different sources, its hilarious. But borrowing isn't an instant damnation, though you do need to make those borrowed elements work, which doesn't happen here. There isn't even a hint of uniqueness or originality here and as if that isn't bad enough, the pace is miserable and the movie is a total bore. I don't mind exposition, but this movie drags on and doesn't pick up until close to the end, but even then, don't expect a dynamic conclusion. I like fantasy movies and hoped Eragon would be another epic, but instead is a boring and dull experience. This two disc Special Edition has a good selection of bonus materials, but lacks the visual polish and audio depth of the Blu-Ray release. If the presentation of the movie itself is the main for you, as it is with me, then you'll want the Blu-Ray, but if you prefer extras over presentation, this is your best option.
Video:
Eragon is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The transfer here can't compete with the one found on the Blu-Ray edition, but it still looks quite good. As was the case with the Blu-Ray version, you'll notice some softness at times, in what seems to be an effort to mask the weaker special effects. The detail level is still solid, by standard DVD scale, while the image is clean and clear throughout. The colors are bright and bold, while contrast is smooth and consistent. Not much else we can discuss here, a very good transfer that does the material justice.
Audio:
Fox has included both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 options, but don't expect the world from this material. This sounds very good, but lacks the kind of depth and range I anticipated. Then again, the film was much less action driven than I expected, so that change in tone is reflected in the soundtrack. The action scenes do sound quite good though, with some power and bass that stands out. I wouldn't rank those scenes as elite level however, just good, but good is enough in this case. The music sounds good also, while dialogue is clear and not a single line is lost. This release also includes French and Spanish language tracks, as well as subtitles in English and Spanish.
