Movie and Television Reviews

Eragon is an uninspired attempt to recreate a Lord of the Rings experience. Stop me if it sounds familiar: An unlikely hero is entrusted with a powerful weapon, a dragon in this case, with which he can topple an evil ruler. An old and wise man helps the boy along his journey to the home of the resistance from where he can lead the attack against the evil ruler who himself is none too happy that the object escaped his grasp and sends a powerful “Shade” to track the boy down and kill him. The movie’s climax is a spectacular computer generated battle between two large armies.

The movie’s style also echoes LOTR. The evil horde commanded by the king look dark and dirty and the trek to the resistance is sprinkled with some distant overhead camera angles that highlight some nice topography. The aforementioned battle scenes are good-especially the Dragon dog fight- but I think I’ve seen enough spectacular battles to last me a couple of years.

The movie moves well, but takes a while to get going and never really reaches a fever pitch. I’ll give this movie an extra star because it has a do your duty message (as opposed to the follow your heart message), and the brave, Eragon, played by Ed Spellers, sets a good example for young boys.

A note about John Malkovich who plays the evil King Galbatorix. Malkovich is a good actor, I guess, but he’s not suited to epic or historical villains or heroes. His overacting in this role elicit laughter instead of fear. He did the same thing in the Three Musketeers with Leonardo DiCaprio, turning in one of the most unintentionally funny performances I’ve ever seen.

The shade was OK, but Malkovich is horrible.