Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9358 in DVD
• Brand: GUILLORY,SIENNA
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com

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

Eragon Extras

Christopher Paolini talks to us about his book and film inspirations and makes recommendations for fans of Eragon, click here to view the complete list.

Build and customize your very own dragon with "Volksdragon".

Beyond Eragon

Eragon (Inheritance Trilogy, Book 1)

The Eragon Community on Amazon

Eragon Collectibles

Stills from Eragon

Customer Reviews

This could have been a masterpiece.
Honestly, I wanted to cry as I sat there in the theater watching this movie. What a waste of ten bucks. If you have read the books, and excitedly waited out the release of the movie, you are undoubtably as disappointed as I am. The books had such scope, like a Lord of the Rings junior. There was no way to get everything important shoved into an hour and a half movie. Why not go ahead and make a 2 and a half hour epic? I'd have watched it!!
Here is what you'll miss in the movie:
-The relationship between Brom and Eragon is very underdeveloped, so much so that when Brom dies, you're like, whoopdeedoo.
-Saphira ages from a tiny dragon into just about full grown in one ridiculous moment.
-Eragon's journey with Murtagh is like, 5 seconds long. No Hadrac desert, no bonding. Again, you could care less about Murtagh in the movie.
-The Dwarven kingdom was UNBELIEVABLY disappointing. If you read the book, you probably had quite a vision workded up in your head, with the Star Rose and all. The movie pretty much annihilates all that. And the dwarves themselves are stupid-looking. You can't slap some armor on a guy with a beard and call them a dwarf.
-Arya is an ELF. Did they really go over on the budget that they couldn't even give her POINTED EARS???
-The battle between Eragon and the Shade is like nothing. I was so bored.

Over all, this movie takes a perfectly paced book and puts it into hyperdrive, taking all the wonder and fun right out of it. You'll sit down to watch this movie and all you'll be able to do is watch in horror as they slaughter it. It is a terrible shame. Had they had a larger CGI budget, blatantly copied some LOTR stuff, and had Mr. Paolini perhaps overseen the novel-to-script process, well, maybe he did, but they just shoved some more money at him and he said, "Whatever, I'm alright with you destroying my cool book. Go for it."

Now, if I were to choose one or two things from the movie that didn't totally and completely suck, I will say this:
Saphira, for the amount of CGI that was spent on her, is perfect. She was totally real. The voice of Rachel Weisz is perfect as well. Eragon, Edward Speelers, he was great too. Too bad he had to over-act in order to compensate for the crappy, crappy dialogue and lack of character development.

If they happen to make a sequel, Lord help us. The second book is even more complex and wide-scoped than the first. It will not translate well based on it's predecessor. I say they scrap the first movie, and make it all over, with a bigger budget, and the fans of the book get all editing priveledges. Then we'd have our Eragon come to life, rather than this horrible, mess of a mutilated movie!!

Star Wars meets Dragonheart
I am the only member of my family who didn't read the books. That said, we all saw Eragon the movie together. It was noted beforehand that I alone had no expectations. The rest of this review is a spoiler, so proceed at your own risk.

I'm sorry to report that none of us enjoyed the movie. It was all about the animation. The story was recycled. The dialogue was inane. They repeated one line at least three times, and I'm told it was never in the books..."One part brave, three parts fool."

This project had the depth and imagination of Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings", meaning not much. My family (the Eragon fans) were intensely disappointed, outraged and offended. They said it was like taking a novel and condensing it to a four-frame comic strip. I wonder what the author, Christopher Paolini thought? There is mention of elves and dwarves, but you never see them...or so I thought. I was told afterward that the female lead character, Arya, was an elf. The movie never revealed that. At the end, I thought she was Minnehaha the Indian princess.

Personally, I did not hate Eragon as much as the others in my family, but I would not recommend it. I thought that as presented, this movie was a bold-faced rip-off of Star Wars; the king is a dragon-rider who turned against his brethren to gain ultimate power...there is a secret encampment of rebels, waiting for a leader to appear...that leader has no idea he is the chosen, or why...the hero's adoptive family is slain in the search for him by the evil king...the hero's mentor is slain by the evil king's more evil minion. Sound familiar? On and on it goes, a regurgitation of the same old thing. Even the dragons are reminiscent of the worms in Dragonheart and Dragonslayer, nothing innovative.

The computer graphics are very good, but that's about all you'll get in this offering. Given that, even the best of the CGs will remind you of Lord Of The Rings, but not as good.

Two Thumbs Down
Eragon- While the actors and special effects were excellent, I couldn't get over the story line. I read and liked the book. They skipped and completely left the story line in the movie so often it was hard to keep up. If I were Chris Paolini I would be furious at how they butchered my story. The dumbest part was when Saphira was first learning to fly. She took off a baby dragon and came back full grown. This book's story was destroyed in the theater. Maybe my expectations were too high as I went to see the movie looking for Lord of the Rings quality and I got a USA up all night with Joe Bob Briggs movie. Had they made this movie 3 1/2 hours long and stayed with the story line it would have rivaled Lord of the Rings. As it is we may never see Eldest in theaters.