My Eragon Review (Warning, spoilers included)

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In January, my husband and I decided to go to the movie Eragon. We had just finished reading the book outloud together, and he really enjoyed it. I had read the book once before and I absolutely loved it. It is one of my most favorite books, so of course when I heard there was going to be a movie made from it, I was so excited! I waited nearly a year for this movie to come out, and after a year's worth of excitement and anticipation, I finally got to see it. And guess what? It SUCKED.* Let me start off by saying that I fully understand that there is no way humanly possible to fit every single detail from that book (and a lot of other books) into a feature-length movie. It just can't happen. Now, Peter Jackson (the director of the Lord of the Rings movies) and his screenwriters did an absolutely phenomenal job adapting from the books to create the movies. Did he leave parts out of the movies that were in the books? Absolutely. And that's okay, because the movies at least did the books justice and would have made Tolkien proud. The movie Eragon, however, does not even come close to doing the book justice and I bet Christopher Paolini wanted to cry himself to sleep after watching it. I know I would have if I had been the author. Okay...so the movie started out decently, but went downhill fast. There was absolutely no character development whatsoever. You just kind of meet this farm boy and his family, and then it goes into the next scene. That happened throughout the entire movie. If you hadn't read the book, you would probably be lost as to what was even going on. They go from scene to scene without even hardly explaining anything, and Eragon isn't nearly as deep of a character as he is in the book. You don't get the chance to "bond" with the characters, so when someone dies in the movie it's kind of like "okay....next!" Seriously...they should have and could have done a much better job than they did with the character development. They left out so many parts of the book that the movie seems choppy and has little depth, and most of the parts they actually included were altered in some way. I bet the people who made this movie read the Spark Notes version of the story and didn't even bother to read the book. That's how bad it was compared to the book. Warning: This next part of my blog will reveal several parts of the book and/or movie, so do not read on if you don't want to be told some of what happens in the story. (Except for the last two paragrahs...those are safe!) If you have not read the book--and I would HIGHLY recommend reading the book--DO NOT READ any more! Of course, if you don't have any intentions of reading the book or don't care if certain things are spoiled...go ahead and read on! For example, after Eragon's egg hatches in the book, the dragon gradually grows up and it gets harder and harder for Eragon to hide the fact that he has a dragon hidden in his bedroom. Eragon even gives the dragon a choice as to what her name should be, and when the right name is presented, the dragon clearly picks out which name she wants. (He names her Saphira.) In the movie, you see Saphira as a young baby learning to fly, and when she takes off, a bunch of flashes happen and she is automatically grown up full size, and tells Eragon that her name is Saphira and that he is her Rider. Lame!!!! Here is another example: the Raz'ac. (Bad guys.) In the book they are described as nasty bird-like creatures with ugly beaks. In the movie, they look like the corpse-like mummies who come to life in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns movies. It was the same for the Urgals (more bad guys.) The movie portrays them as big ugly men, not the horrible fear-inducing monsters I imagined in the book. Oh and Durza (yet another bad guy) is described in the book as having fierce maroon eyes, and in the movie they were kind of a light grayish-blue. That wasn't a huge thing, but it was stupid. How difficult would it have been to give someone maroon contact lenses? Seriously... Now, when Eragon's uncle is killed by the Raz'ac in the book, he has a vengeance to kill them for what they did. In the movie there was no mention of this whatsoever, and Eragon just kind of goes along with Brom, the village storyteller (who is revealed later to be a former Dragon Rider as well) and does what he says, even though Eragon doesn't really know him at all. This was quite different from the book, and doesn't really make any sense, especially to those who haven't read the book. In the book, when they set off escaping from the Empire, Brom immediately begins training Eragon in swordfighting and in the use of magic in order to become able to fight and not be killed by Urgals or whoever is after him. Brom gives Eragon his sword (Zar'roc)and they train every night until Eragon is strong enough. He learns the use of magic and the Ancient Language only from Brom and his teachings, and you see him growing and developing from a weak teenage farmboy into a man strong enough do do battle against the evil that is invading their land. In the movie, Eragon doesn't learn hardly anything (except for a few words in the Ancient Language) from Brom and just starts using magic all by himself. They don't even show Eragon training at all with swords. Oh and not to mention, in the movie Brom doesn't give Eragon his sword until Brom is on his death bed, which is supposed to be WAY earlier in the story. They also left out the bond between Brom and Eragon, which made Brom's death seem like it wasn't that big of a deal in the movie. Now, let me take a break and talk about Saphira's appearance. I was actually pretty impressed with how they made her look, except for the fact that she had feathers on her wings in the movie and she did not in the book. She actually looked pretty cool. Her voice was too sweet and motherly in the movie, though. It didn't match up right at all. They did capture some of her attitude in the movie though, which was good. The saddle Brom makes for Saphira is also completely wrong, and is basically just like a horse saddle and doesn't really help Eragon to stay seated when they are flying. Ugh!!! So anyway...moving on. Arya, the elf responsible for the dragon egg appearing in the Spine, appears way too early in the movie. Eragon starts having dreams about her almost right away, and in the book it isn't until almost halfway through. Oh and in the movie she isn't even revealed as an elf, just another human being in the movie. She doesn't have elf ears or anything that would suggest that she is an elf. When they reach one of the cities in the movie, Eragon gets his fortune told by Angela in the city of Daret. (In the book, this occured in Teirm, which was completley left out of the movie.) In the movie, Angela is portrayed as a young woman. In the book, she is portrayed as an older, witch-like woman.This is the one and only time she appears the movie, and she has a much bigger role in the book. Her cat, Solumbum, isn't even in the movie at all, and I would say he is my favorite non-major character in the book. I was highly disappointed in that. It is also in this city that Murtagh shows up, and in the book he doesn't come into the story until much later. Earlier I mentioned Eragon's dreams about Arya. In the book, she is just a vision and he cannot speak to her at all, but in the movie they can talk to each other through the visions, and that is what brings Eragon to the city of Gilead to rescue her. Also, Arya is not poisoned at this point and is completely awake and healthy and able to talk to them, and in the book she is unconscious from the poison when they rescue her. Also, the Hadarac desert and the meeting with the Kull (bigger Urgals) is completely cut out of the movie, along with Murtagh's resistance to go to the Varden. There are so many countless other things that were left out. When they reach the Varden (a large group of people who are rebelling against the Empire), in the book there is this big fight and struggle to make it in time before the Urgals close in. In the movie, they just have to jump under a waterfall, swim a little, fight off a couple Urgals, and ta-da! They are at the Varden. That was so stupid and not really suspenseful at all like it was in the book. Not to mention, in the book Eragon almost drowned and in the movie there was no struggle at all. In the book, when they are safely inside, the Varden hardly trust them at all, and Eragon's mind is probed in order to make sure they are enemies of the Empire. This part was completely left out of the movie, along with the Twins, who play a major role in the book and in the second book as well. When Murtagh's scar is shown (which reveals his true identity, which the Varden do not like) it is not going from his right shoulder to his left hip like it is in the book, but just across his lower back. In the book, Murtagh tells Eragon his identity before they reach the Varden, and in the movie Eragon finds out the same time the Varden do. Also (in the movie) Murtagh is taken away because of this and locked up and you don't even see him until later when the battle takes place. The king of the Varden, Ajihad, is not portrayed as the nice and just leader as he is in the book by giving Murtagh a prison cell comparable to a five star hotel with unlimited library access. Instead he is the one that orders Murtagh to be taken away and is shown as a ruler who doesn't even care at all that Eragon sees Murtagh as a friend. (In the movie, I don't know why Eragon would see him as a friend, because he just sort of randomly shows up and Eragon automatically trusts him. They left out the bonding between these two characters as well.) In the battle between the Empire and the Varden near the end of the movie, it is set up completely wrong. In the movie, tar is poured all over the battlefield so that Saphira can light it on fire during the fight in order to kill the Urgals.