inferiority complex thy suffer…

A word of caution: IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TO WATCH ERAGON IF YOU HAD WATCHED THE LOTR TRILOGIES UNLESS YOU HAVE A LOT OF SPARE TIME TO BOOT.

Or else, you’ll end up carrying a barrage of complains like me.

Of course, Eragon boasts credible actors like John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons, but what use of fine assets if they’re not fully utilised.John Malkovich needs more screen time, his presence was titillating and his potrayal as this disturbed king is chilling.Yet, as i, gripping my fingers and pondering, " we’re going to see more of his terror unleashing, ohmygaaawd", have to correct my thoughts a bit a while after that because well,the dreaded moment never comes.

There you go ,we have the supposedly terrifying king Galbatorix but his antiques in this movie only includes intimidating his sorcerer from the comforts of his seat and doesnt even move more than 100 metres square radius from his gallant chair.

Gile menakutkan.

We knew he’s more than that , more terryfying ( John Malkovich did a splendid potrayal of the evil-kenevil king especially the way he speaks, aaaa~~), but the limited screen time left him subdued.

And it proves that this movie was a case of high buildup of tension and suspense but huge letdown when the anticipated moment materialise. Its like covering your face because we know a ghost is going to appear,but mocking yourself for getting spooked in the first place after that because the ghost, after all, is not that terrfying.Or worse, eleh,  theres no ghost at all pon.

Like when Eragon( kire Frodo ) and his guide,Brom ( like Aragorn, only older and he’ll be dead halfway) went on a journey to reach the Vaders ( separatist group ), i expected suspenseful, unaware, jolting ambush  scenes ( this is when i cover my face throughout the whole journey, dammit) by the enemy partisan but hey, the dragon Saphira is always there to forewarn enemy’s whereabouts shouting " Watch out Eragon, Urugals are coming!"
Indeed, the bright side is our hero is always ready and safely guarded to keep him alive and we just reduced the chance of getting jerked out of our seats which nobody liked.

This is when its starts getting predictable as i know, that the hero will stay alive.
Now, we know the hero will ALWAYS stay alive in any heroic epics but the absence of any prospect, at all, that the hero will not survive is seriously getting in my nerves.Theres no near-death experience by the hero with substantial intensity that can make me grip my seats and pray. No attempt whatsoever to at least heighten the possibility that our earlier predictions can turn out to be false.

The lines , to put it succintly, are awful for an epic story’s standards. Its like watching a Disney movie, where cheesy lines are the starring role.Even Disney’s production nowadays are more contemporary and upbeat in delivering lines. Why Eragon want to relive the melodramatic and grandmotherly of past Disney productions i dont fully understand.It was too direct, where there is another way to get around it in a more witty and interesting manner.
Faithful to the book is one, but competence in entertaining sceptical audience is another.

Believabality is priority number one concern in this movie.

1. The dragon transforms from a cute, senget-senget flying  dragon into a full grown one only in one flight.

2. The Vaders look like a bunch of Arab tribes during Tutankhamun era.Blame it on the costume.

3.The Vaders should have shown more excitement when finally it dawned to them that a Dragon Rider was born. After all, they’ve  waited for 1000 years.But no , the leader only says,
" which one of you is the dragon rider?"
"me"
"call your dragon and if it attacks, we’ll kill you"( right, these vaders is willing to kill the very thing the’ve hoped for .ridiculous)
" raaaaaah.( the dragon)"
The leader smiles.

okay, i hoped for something more majestic introduction of the dragon to the Vaders. This is too businesslike.I want the Vaders to be completely at AWE.The legend had come true for goodness sake, why are they acting like theyre asking "why are you late?" ( basically i’m pulling my hair out at that time)

3. The battle was won too easily.The dragon blows some fire,Eragon kills the leader of the enemy’ s soldiers and thats it. They won.But i have to say the dragon duel in the sky was spectacular.

The final verdict of this movie is that its not THAT bad.In fact, it’ll be highly entertaining and the amount of tension is suitable if i were still in school reading The Phantom of the Opera.If i hadnt watched LOTR, there might be a possibilty i will be sharing the children enjoyments but since i had, well thats too bad.

For ardent fans of Eragon out there, you are allowed to get stiffy on me because of my reviews but please, dont blame me.

Blame LOTR instead.

Writer’s note:  cuti = duit habis.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 6:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.