Attempts to introduce fantasy films about dragons have occurred from time-to-time over the last 30 years with mixed results. "Dragonslayer", "Dragonheart" and other films have attempted to bring realistic looking dragons to the big screen. While "Eragon" has its heart in the right place, this film based on the popular novel written by Christopher Paolini when he was 15 years old, just doesn't gel as a film. Clearly inspired by the popular fantasy films from "Harry Potter" to "Lord of the Rings", the film's director focuses as more energy on the CGI action sequences than on the drama itself which undermines the film. The performances are fine although the characters are very much stock characters that could have been cribbed from any number of fantasy novels/films. The derivative nature of the story provides nothing new to the fantasy genre and the only compelling and interesting feature is the fact that the novel was written by a 15 year old. The film, however, was made by adults that should have known better and improved on young Paolini's story. ***

Alagaesia has fallen under the sway of evil. The evil ruler Galbatroix (John Malkovich) continues his campaign to rub out the Varden who are dedicated to bring justice and peace back to kingdom. When a boy named Eragon (Edward Spellers)discovers a blue stone that turns into a dragon egg and hatches he finds a means to help his people. Galbatroix sends one of his henchmen Durza (Robert Carlyle) to hunt down the boy and dragon. Soon he becomes one of the last dragon riders and dedicates himself along with Saphira (Rachel Weisz) his dragon to freeing the people. With the help of Brom (Jeremy Irons) his mentor and an elf Princess (Sienna Guillory) he might just accomplish his task.

Image & Sound:

"Eragon" looks OK in its DVD presentation. There are a number of reasons that could be and I'll get to those in a moment. The CGI effects although not totally convincing, are adequate to telling the story. The screener that I received had numerous digital artifacts and problems with pixilation. That probably has more to do with the fact that screeners are often sent out as CD-R's and can't handle all the data without compressing the images and sound further. So keep in mind that this is a review of a screener NOT a final copy of the film. ***

I was surprised that the film includes both a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and a DTS mix on the DVD. Both sound fine with a slight edge going to the DTS mix. The formats aren't used to their best advantage with the mix included here however. The soundtrack sounds solid throughout but lacked the aural openness I was expecting. ---

With the majority of the special features confined to the second disc (keep in mind there are three editions), "Eragon" does have some nice special features. I'm going to focus on the first disc of the two disc set since it is essentially the same as the single disc edition. The single disc edition (which is available in both widescreen and full screen formats) includes only the commentary track by director Stefean Fangmeier. Fangmeier does a good job of discussing how the film was shot, the approach to the material and some of the challenge he had in creating the film. ***

The second disc has a marvelous menu which duplicates a map of the mythical Alagaesia. Each section has different information. "Carvahall-Inside the Inheritance Trilogy" allows writer Paolini to discuss his novel, his influences and what he was reaching for when he wrote it. Interestingly, he reveals that he wrote the book partially because he had run out of interesting fantasy novels to read at his library. He also discusses where his trilogy is going without giving too much detail. ***

"Daret-The Inhabitants of Alagaesia" features the director talking about the characters that appear in the film. ***

"Saphira's Animation Guide with Director Commentary" focuses on the design of one of the central characters- the dragon. It's actually an interesting but brief piece showing how much work went into visualizing the character and making her convincing on screen. ***

"The Spine-Vision of Eragon" gives us storyboards for the film with commentary. We also get extended and deleted scenes included as part of this section. Finally we get a section that has more storyboards, how to pronounce some of the names and locations from the film and the book. ***

Finally we get the most important featurette "Farthen Dur-The Secrets of Alagaesia" which allows us to see how the CGI effects sequences were created. We get a glimpse behind-the-scenes on the set and see how the important battles were created for the film. ---

Final Words: