“The Kingdom of Alagaesia is ruled by the evil King Galbatorix, a former dragon rider that betrayed his mates and his people in his quest for power. When the orphan farm boy Eragon finds a blue stone sent by Princess Arya, he sooner realizes that it is a dragon egg. When the dragon Saphira is born, Eragon meets his mentor Brom, and becomes the dragon rider foreseen in an ancient prophecy that would set his people free from the tyrant Galbatorix. Eragon meets the rebels Varden and together they fight against the evil sorcerer Durza and the army of Galbatorix in a journey for freedom. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”
I know that at the current time Eragon is an older popular youth text. It was popular a few years ago but as there has been no new movie released the series has been forgotten at the present time. I have never read the series myself but I have recently watched the Eragon movie.
The overall theme of the movie met with my own love of fantasy and adventure, but it didn’t flow as well as I had imagined. At times Eragon doesn’t listen to Saphira or Brom and this of course results in problems. This annoyed me but I thought that it did match Eragon’s character. The story moved too fast as I was often confused by the sudden change in scene and the shortness of Eragon’s training with Brom.
When Eragon saves Princess Arya it reminded me of Star Wars where Luke saved Princess Leia. Princess Leia is all attitude and really could save herself while Luke was often trying to keep up. This scene then finally resulted in the battle between Eragon, the rebels and Galbatorix who is momentarily defeated (again so similar to Star Wars).
Overall the movie was good but at times it sped through scenes that needed more attention to ensure that the viewer fully understood. This is the curse for all books to movies but I do believe that the book holds merit. The plot itself was not totally unique in that the male protagonist discovers he has magical ability and must fight an evil oppressor but it was unique in it’s use of dragons. I enjoyed the fact that the dragon and dragon rider had such a close bond and that they were a set – can’t have one without the other so to speak.
Hopefully soon I will actually read the series and find out what all the fuss was about.
