Eragon by Christopher Paolini

5th grade and up

I devour science fiction and fantasy; give me Luke and Obi-Wan, Frodo and Gandalf, Harry and Dumbledore, Ged and Ogion, Aerin and Luthe, Arthur and Merlin, and I am satisfied. But with Eragon and Brom, as much as I wanted to love them in their roles as hero and mentor, I was left hungry. The Inheritance Saga is quite the hot commodity at the library where I work, but I fail to see the continued appeal of what to me was a work of stunning mediocrity. Granted, Paolini was only 15 when he wrote the story, and my literary palate has probably been spoiled by the greats in the genre, but so much of the plot and characterization was derivative, and the dialogue was so stilted, that I could never immerse myself in the world of Alagaesia as I might in Middle-Earth, where at least the speech patterns fit the characters – ethereal elves speak formally and elegantly, and grounded hobbits speak forthrightly and simply. In the great works, I can care about the characters because they are fleshed out and distinct. I just couldn’t muster the caring for Eragon’s characters that I wished I could. The idea for the story had such potential, what with a farm boy hero who seems destined to save his people from a tyrannical ruler. But it’s been done before, and much better.

So I was not surprised that the movie was disappointing as well, despite having Jeremy Irons, an actor whose work I typically enjoy. His death scene astride Saphira – the old dragon rider soaring one last time – was the single affecting scene in the entire movie. The movie suffered not only from the limitations of the book, but also from poor acting, poor pacing, and a poor sense of what plot points were essential to the story. Rachel Weisz’s voicing of Saphira was not bad, I must say – at least, it was far better than a rendition I heard on an audiobook of the story where the narrator sounded like he had swallowed a pound of gravel and was trying to regurgitate it. But two actors can not carry a movie that, to my mind, was doomed from the beginning.