Dave Snowdon

Eragon (2006)

Director: Stefen Fangmeier
Screenplay : Peter Buchman
Based on the novel by Christopher Paolini

By the time you read this I expect that director Stefen Fangmeier and screenwriter Peter Buchman will have committed seppuku and the author Christopher Paolini may have stopped spinning in his grave - I’m assuming here that Christopher Paolini died with shock on seeing the travesty that his novel became on the big screen.

As far as I can tell (from www.imdb.com) this is the first film directed by Stefen Fangmeier (previously his background has been in special effects) and that the only other screenplay by Peter Buchman that actually made it onto film was Jurassic Park III. After sitting through Eragon the film I sincerely hope they are not given a chance to create another such ediface of excrement.

I’ll start with some positive comments (as one is apparently supposed to) and then detail what went wrong. The dragon special effects are generally very good. Sorry, I should have said positive comment as I can’t think of anything else I liked about the film apart from the end titles signalling the end of cinematographic torture and giving the cue to leave the theatre.

Actually, I suppose we do have one think to thank the director and screenwriter for - Eragon is a near perfect example which demonstrates the wisdom of the old writers’ adage "show don’t tell." Eragon the film takes every opportunity to tell, not show, you what’s going on right from the excruciating narration at the start of the film. The intro could have been worse - they did manage to avoid having an animated book on screen during the narration - but you can tell that serious thought went into making the introduction as corny as possible.

When turning a novel into a film some details often have to be omitted but it’s a bit of a shame when pretty much the whole plot gets removed and replaced by an evil changling. Instead of chasing his uncle’s killers Eragon runs away to find santuary with the Varden. When he meets Murtagh (in a way that makes little sense) he is positively bursting to find the Varden which makes even less sense since he knows they will imprison him or worse.

As well as replacing the plot with a collection of cliches, Pete Buchman is guilty of cinematographic genocide - the elves and dwarves have vanished and the Urguls have been replaced by humans in dirty clothes - and grevious harm to Arya. He has managed to turn a warrior/soceress princess into a stereotypical helpless damsel wailing to be rescued.

The dragon looks impressive enough but seems to have undergone a personality exchange with a rabbit.

I could go on, but frankly it’s not worth it. I stayed to the end of the film in the vain hope it would get better - it didn’t. If you enjoyed reading the book don’t watch this film. If you didn’t enjoy the book don’t watch the film. If you’ve never heard of the book don’t watch the film. Whatever you do, don’t watch the film.