In his homeland of Alagaesia, a farm boy happens upon a dragon's egg -- a discovery that leads him on a predestined journey where he realized he's the one person who can defend his home against an evil king.

Eragon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Eragon (Widescreen Edition)
Eragon (Full Screen Edition)
Eragon [Blu-ray]

While it owes much of its appeal and appearance to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Eragon can stand on its own as an enjoyable fantasy for younger viewers. Faithfully adapted from the bestselling novel by teenage author Christopher Paolini, this boy-and-his-dragon tale offers clean, fast-paced family entertainment without compromising the darker qualities of Paolini's novel (the first in what is known as the "Inheritance" trilogy). The plot centers on 17-year-old peasant farmboy Eragon (played by appealing newcomer Ed Speleers) who discovers a mysterious blue object that turns out to be an egg that eventually hatches to reveal Saphira, a blue-scaled dragon that quickly grows to full-size. According to prophecy, Eragon is destined to be a dragon-rider like those who once protected a benevolent kingdom, thus reviving an ancient conflict against the army of King Galbatorix (John Malkovich), a former dragon rider who turned to evil, now in alliance with a dark-magic "Shade" sorcerer named Durza (Robert Carlyle). While the movie serves up familiar fantasy elements and offers little if anything new to fans of the genre (or anyone who's read the books of Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K. Le Guin), it's visually impressive (especially the dragon scenes, with Rachel Weisz providing the telepathic "voice" of Saphira) and full of timeless wisdom, much of it delivered by Eragon's heroic mentor Brom (Jeremy Irons), himself a former dragon rider with memories of past battles and hope for Eragon's future. Add a fair warrior-maiden named Arya (Sienna Guillory) and you've got all the ingredients for a worthwhile (if not particularly original) fantasy that points directly to a sequel. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up to individual viewers to decide. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Speechless...
I'm only about 20 minutes into the film and I can already safely say that this is by far the worst adaptaion of a novel into a film that I have ever had the displeasure of viewing. Do yourself a favor and buy the novels..

Derivative
It seems that every plot element from Star Wars is in this movie. Farm boy (Eragon, Luke) finds something (egg, droids) that somebody powerful wants (King, Emperor). The search is done by a powerful second-in-command (Durza, Darth Vader). The farm boy's uncle is killed. A older mentor shows up (Brom, Ben Kenobi), who teaches the boy about (magic, the force). There's even a princess and a rebel base waiting for a final attack. Continue this with the rest of the plot and you will see that this story mirrors Star Wars. Amazing that this kind of derivative book/movie made it past any respectable publisher/producer. My eight-year-old son even delighted in finding the similarities to Star Wars. Don't bother with this. Watch (or read) something original.

There is only one reason I'm getting this movie
The only reason I'm getting this movie is to see what mountainous plot points they cut out. I understand that films must be edited but I was so dissapointed with this movie. They couldn't follow this book if they wanted to. The acting and scenery were the only good things that saved this movie from being total crap. If it had gotten nominated for an Oscar, it would only have proved that the other nominees had to be bad. Half of the story line and 2/3 of the characters have been sucked out of this 2 hour peice of trash. I can honestly tell you that they won't make Eldest because they didn't introduce Katrina and the Twins in this movie. Jeod is not even in here and the Razaac are stuntmen covered in bugs. It was really pathetic, don't waste your time.

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