When Fantasy Movies Fail: ERAGON

 

Next up in this series of blog posts, we take a look at Eragon. Eragon is next in this series, because the Narnia series began in 2005 with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. So Eragon was to be the next fantasy series to start and be released. 

However, unlike Narnia, only 1 film got made. 

The film did not do well from the get-go. Not to look for good where there isn't any; but the film was not COMPLETELY terrible. It had some decent elements in it here and there....but definitely not enough to save it. 

The main issue is the source material. While it's commendable that the author was able to write and publish the first of four (it was meant to be a trilogy, though Book 3 got large enough to the point that 'Book 3 Part 1' and 'Book 3 Part 2' would be needed to avoid a final book 'squish') books at the age of 16; the plot is essentially a hodge-podge of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. There are lots of websites and articles that point out which elements were borrowed; though the very beginning of the film is the best of one such example: the princess gets stunned and captured by the bad guys. 

Sometimes, it can be tricky to make a good adaptation if the source material isn't good. The Eragon (or rather, Inheritance, as the series is called) is not bad, it just doesn't bring anything new or noteworthy to the table. Maybe that's the point, as the books feel like a love letter to the author's key interests. 

The casting and effects were pretty good. The effects may look dated by today's standard, though. Biggest nods to the cast and performances go to Ed Speelers as Eragon (he later appears as Stephen Bonnet in Outlander), Jeremy Irons as Brom, because Jeremy Irons; and Robert Carlyle as The Shade.

In short, Eragon kind of comes across as a B-Movie. Not a bad thing in of itself, though it was meant to be an A-Movie (many B-Movies are 'self aware' and as such are successful. Look at the Sharknado films, for instance). It's still enjoyable 'dumb fun', in the way that the Underworld and Resident Evil movies are bad....but good in their own ways. So too does Eragon join their ranks as B-Movie fantasy, as more titles in this series will fall into. Definitely 'kid approved' to throw on and entertain some youngsters, in the same way that I recommend Joss Whedon's version of Justice League to parents or for 'family viewing.'  

Parting note: since that Disney now owns Fox, they've 'inherited' Eragon - it's available to stream on Disney+. Because of this; the author is trying to get Disney to give his books another go (a 're-adaptation') under the social media handle, " #EragonRemake "if you feel inclined to join the following. I'd be willing to give this franchise another shot, if Disney makes some films or a series ('ongoing' or limited) out of it. It could be good, if done well. While I don't dislike neither the Hunger Games movies or books, I feel that they made pretty decent movies out of the books -they could've easily turned out to be bad. 

Eragon's 15th anniversary is on December 13 of this year.