Shannon Costello

Recently a fellow teacher observed quite casually that movies can never be as good as the books they are based on because our imagination will always be better to us than what is on the screen. I find I am never completely satisfied with movies based on books, but fortunately I get a great deal of pleasure out of figuring out why I feel the way I do.

My first objection to Eragon is fairly superficial. I don’t suppose most movies are provided with limitless funds and resources. The creators of this movie seem to have cut corners on the costumes. Durza, the shade, should have had maroon eyes. Instead he had very ordinary eyes and his face was marked with very tacky designs. The Urgals are not supposed to be human. Their most marked feature is their large horns. Not so in the movie. The Urgals were bald humans with large black warts. Very unimpressive. I suppose more efforts were poured into the dragon, but I found Saphira to be somewhat disappointing. She was a bit too feathery. I find I like my dragons to be purely reptilian.

Speaking of Saphira, I am not sure how best to convey in a movie what the characters hear in their minds, such as a conversation between Saphira and Eragon. But I was most unhappy with Saphira’s voice. I wonder if I would have preferred subtitles?

I was not too disturbed with exaggeration problems, but I did feel that Eragon was made into a Luke Skywalker-style hothead. Such hotheads rush off to rescue the distressed damsel even when the fate of the rebellion hangs on the survival of said hothead. Eragon rushes off to save Arya, putting himself in great danger, even when he is aware that he is the only hope of the Varden. The problem is that Eragon’s rescue of Arya in the book is something he does along the way, and therefore the degredation of Eragon’s character was hardly necessary.

There were some amusing scenes, such as Saphira’s instant transformation from puppy-sized dragonet to full-grown dragon or Arya’s big hurry to get home, demonstrated by a slow, regal walk off stage right.

Finally, I would love to know if Eragon’s screenwriters were aware of the second book or the end of the trilogy, which is not yet out. Cutting out Katrina saved a great deal of time, but she would be needed in a sequel. My prediction for the books is that Eragon ends up falling for Nasuada and not Arya. I think these film makers think somewhat differently. I wonder who’s right?