Eragon Christopher Paolini

This story was begun when Paolini was only fifteen years old, and is composed of a world heavily based in the fantasy genre. It has everything you can imagine a magical book would have, dragons, elves, dwarves, warlocks, and more. While the books did have a teenager feel to them, they were still quite good, and even after a few years I still remember some scenes word for word.

Now, for the movie. Like the Divergent movie, every similarity to a previous series is made incredibly obvious, while everything unique is swept under the rug. They changed Arya’s race, from a dark haired elf to a blonde princess (the elf thing was also really important so I don't know how the authors thought they’d get away with it). The actors (save for, like, two) weren’t good. Like, at all. As for the plot, the movie did skip some of the filler of Eragon traveling and developing, but otherwise that was the only improvement. The beginning of the movie was solely exposition. Angela, the very important fortune teller, made a small and useless appearance. Arya’s rescue, and the fact that she was poisoned the whole time , was kind of messed up. She didn’t get poisoned until after her rescue? Why? And Murtagh’s personality does a complete 180. He goes from a secretive guy that refuses to travel with Eragon past the valley leading to the Varden, to a complete airhead. In the movie, he’s super pumped and excited to go to these people that he knows will imprison him. It just doesn’t make sense??? And then he’s not allowed to fight, despite Eragon being a lot less trustworthy and still taking part in the action. Also, I feel the need to mention costuming. There is no identifiable culture or fashion in this story. Where Eragon’s from, everyone’s medieval. The Varden have a north African, Middle Eastern thing going on. Okay. But then there’s Arya. She goes from wearing medieval clothing, to oriental clothing, to some Native American stereotype complete with a feather in her hair. The least the wardrobe department could do is be consistent. I’m actually not sure if she’s elf or human but you’d think she’d still have a continuity to her fashion choices. Then, the ending. I’m just going to ask, was the dragon behind the tapestry there the whole time? Or was that supposed to be a coincidence? It seemed a little ridiculous.

In the end, this movie just doesn’t work, either as a stand alone or when compared to the book. It’s rather regretful, considering the fact that staying loyal to the book would have created an immense loyal fanbase, and another three (or more) movies. The poor writing, mischaracterization, forced romance,  missing plot points, etc. kept this from happening and, unfortunately, we will probably never get the movie this book deserves.