Eragon

I went to catch the premiere of Eragon at GV Max on Monday. Brother had an extra ticket coz his wife didn't go.

I was kinda excited at going for a premiere but in the end, it wasn't such a big deal. Heh. It's kinda sad coz I always think that the experience of movie going can be so much more special. When we arrived, there were some TV interviews being done with some celebs and people dressed up cheesily as characters from the movie. Entering the cinema, we found the goodie bags placed at every seat... they weren't even personally given out. After waiting for 25mins (which is the usual delay in most GV cinemas anyway) the movie finally started. This being a Starhub premiere, the adverts started with the Starhub advert. I was thinking that it would be really funny if someone forgot and included a Singtel or M1 advert, especially the new one from Singtel which shows this red slim guy fighting with a green fat guy in a video game.

The movie was a bit of a letdown. I know it was written by a 16-year old, but I don't think that's any excuse for the movie to feel like it was written by one. (SPOILER WARNING! SKIP TO THE NEXT PARA IF YOU WANT TO AVOID IT) One thing which I hated was the lack of sense of timing throughout the film. For example, Eragon and his mentor, Brom, were supposed to travel 5-days on horseback towards some place when suddenly Eragon decided to go back in the opposite direction. So, he gets on his dragon and flies back in no time and the funny thing was Brom, who travelled by horseback, suddenly appeared as well! I mean, how could the horse travel as fast as a flying dragon?

The next thing I didn't like was the dragon's voice. The dragon is apparently a female and it was voiced by Rachel Weiz. Throughout the movie, it just didn't feel right. I think I've been spoilt by the movies where the dragons have this deep booming voice, my all-time favourite being Sean Connery in Dragonheart. So, to watch this dragon speak with a sexy female voice was kinda... wrong.

Eragon was supposed to be the Lord of the Rings for this year. It's quite far from that. The director & cinematographer just couldn't give us a sense of scale and awe throughout the movie. So, it's certainly not epic movie.

On the whole, it was an average movie. I'm sure it'll sell plenty of tickets anyway coz it's the big movie of the season, but I'd recommend that you go with little expectations so that you won't be disappointed.