Zachary FenellEragon
January 16th 2009 19:46
Eragon, 2006
This movie is proof that I love my kids, because I sat through it with them.
They read the books. I wish I'd read the books. If I'd read the books, I wouldn't have let them read the books: I would have made them read the originals.
Now, here's the kicker: the author of the novel, Christopher Paolini, was a homeschooled kid born in '83. God, but I want to support that SO much, but the fact is, the book and the movie both are stinkers. (I admit that I haven't played the video game.)
Eragon is the tale of a dragonrider who finds a dragon's egg and is miraculously the One True Rider for this dragon, including having an unbreakable telepathic bond with his beasty. There are epic battles, personal conflicts, great journeys... but I found myself constantly being reminded of countless other books and stories dealing with dragons, not the least of which was Anne McCafferey's Dragonriders of Pern series.
Neither the premise nor the story were original in any way, and the characters were the opposite of sympathetic. When you really want the main character to get pummeled just once for good measure, you know you've failed to connect with him. The characters, in fact, were so two-dimensional and underdeveloped that I can't even bring myself to discuss them individually.
As a stand-alone issue, it's a bomb. There are, unfortunately, no two ways about it. Putting it in the context of where the story came from though - the kid got this published when he was NINE, ferpetesake! - it's highly remarkable. The length of the volume, the sheer amount of work that he put into it, and the dedication and devotion it required to see it produced in print and on film is just amazing.
This is why I'll be keeping an eye on this kid Paolini. You can't convict a minor of felonious acts in the same way you would convict an adult, and I put it squarely in that category. Sure, he only gets two stars from me, but I fully expect to see a great deal of improvement and development in his style, skill and execution in the future.
2 Stars
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