Eragon DVD Review

The fantasy world of Alagaesia leaps out of the pages of Chrisopher Paolini's Eragon novel and onto DVD!

Courtesy of Fox

Christopher Paolini busted out his Eragon fantasy novel when he was 15 years old! It told an epic adventure about dragon riders, evil wizards, monsters, a young hero named Eragon and his dragon Saphira. Now it's blazing a trail on the big screen as an action-packed movie! Can Eragon and Saphira slay the competition? Find out with our movie review.

Eragon - Fantasy Action and Adventure in Alagaesia

15 year-old Eragon is a farm boy in the empire of the evil wizard Galbatorix, a former dragon rider who betrayed the other riders and killed them all. When Eragon finds a dragon egg that hatches into the blue dragon Saphira he must suddenly become a heroic dragon rider and join the Varden rebels to battle Galbatorix, Durza the shade and the urgal army!

Eragon - Heroic Battles!

The coolest part of this movie is the Saphira the dragon. She starts out as a super-cute hatchling but quickly turns into an awe-inspiringly big dragon. Whether she's ripping through the sky with Eragon hanging on to her saddle, roasting urgals to a crisp with her flame breath, or just hanging out and chatting, she's awesome. The battles are also nice and fast, with cool magic when Eragon and Durza start unleashing their powers.

Eragon - Awful Elves and Fantasy Failures

While Saphira looks awesome, what happened to the elves and beast-horned urgals? The elves don't have pointy ears and the urgals are just big guys with body paint when they should look like one of their 'rents was a goat. It makes them way less cool than they should be. If you've read the Eragon novel then you'll also know that a bunch of stuff has been changed or left out - The Twins and Eragon's injury for starters!

Eragon - DVD Features

The Eragon DVD comes in both regular and widescreen formats, but is pretty weak in terms of extras - only providing an audio commentary from the director, Stefen Fangmeier (sorry, did we just fall asleep?). You could always watch the film in Spanish if you need to mix it up a little.

Eragon - Bottom Line

The Eragon movie is a high-speed, action-packed, version of the Eragon novel. It misses stuff and changes a few things, but Saphira looks awesome and the battles are fast, furious and packed with explosive magic. If you haven't read the book, check this out then read it! If you have read the book, it's worth watching, but a bit frustrating.

Eragon Rating: