• Eragon VS Eragon
    The Book and the Movie


    Eragon is a masterpiece, an amazing work of art, and one of the most captivating fantasy novels ever written. It is a story about a poor farm boy who seems to be your average fifteen year old until he finds a strange stone that turns out to be a dragon’s egg. Each time I pick it up I’m immediately thrown into a fantastic world of excitement and adventure. I become so deeply immersed in the book’s thrilling fantasy that I begin to live in it. I lose myself and I become Eragon, soaring through pages of vivid imagination, riding on the back of my dragon Saphira. Eragon truly is one of the best books ever written, but it is also one of the worse movies ever made. In this paper I will evaluate Eragon the movie, and Eragon the book. Both tell the same story of a farm boy who found a magical dragon’s egg in the deadly mountain range known as the spine. However, the movie falls extremely short of the high expectations set by it’s 497 page counterpart. Knowing that it would take too long to dissect and evaluate every aspect of both the book and the movie, I will only be evaluating the beginning of each media.

    Naturally after reading the book Eragon then reading Eldest, the second installment of the inheritance series that follows Eragon’s adventures, I was excited to see the movie. As soon as I found out about the movie I knew I had to see it. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. I sat in a dark theater with my mom for about a good hour and a half and this is what I saw, the movie started out with a scene depicting the fall of the dragon riders and the rise of King Galbatorix. Afterwards the narrator tells you about the elf Arya and a stone she was carrying that had been taken from Galbatorix. Immediately after Arya’s introduced a scene of Eragon leaving his home to hunt is shown and for most of the introduction to the movie it switches between Arya and Eragon. In the beginning you do see a few scenes with the shade named Durza who was pursuing Arya and the Urgals serving him who look like incompetent, barbaric humans who probably haven’t showered in a few weeks. The major scene in the first part of the movie was when Arya made the stone vanish and it suddenly appeared in front of Eragon. What happened next basically came down to Arya passed out, the shade and his ugly Urgal companions took her captive.

    Once you get passed the initial introduction, Eragon is seen back in his home town. Against what he believes in he goes to the butcher Sloan to trade his new stone for some meat to hold his family for the winter only to have Sloan turn him away after learning of the stones origins. Eragon then passes Brom, the storyteller, who was arguing with some of Galbatorix’s soldiers about some birds he’d caught. When Eragon arrived home he’s greeted by his cousin Roran, who not long after Eragon’s arrival, tells him that he’s leaving to find work. A scene takes place where Eragon talks with his uncle about Roran leaving and about his own future followed shortly after by Roran’s departure and the hatching of the dragon egg. After the egg hatches a scene of Arya is shown then a scene with Galbatorix and the shade who were discussing Eragon’s fate. Before you know it the dragon is learning to fly and just drops out of the sky full grown, claiming her name is Saphira. My evaluation of the movie comes down to, by the end of the introduction into the movie, you basically know where the story is going so when it starts to unfold later on there’s no surprises. The movie basically explains the entire story in the very beginning and you hear the same information that was already given to you without much added detail throughout the rest of it. Of course no one realizes this until they’ve either watched the entire movie all the way through and paid attention to every detail, or unless they’ve read the book prior to seeing the movie. There is a lot more to be said about the Eragon movie but I only have time for a quick evaluation.

    I feel that I have given everyone a pretty good idea of the movie and how it began. Even with that said, in order for you to better understand my evaluation of the movie, you must gain some knowledge of the novel that inspired its creation. The book, unlike the movie, starts off with a shade with crimson hair and maroon eyes who’s sniffing the air for a sign of someone’s presence. The shade is surrounded by Urgals with short swords and shields. They are described as creatures who resemble men with bowed legs and thick, brutish arms made for crushing, with a pair of twisted horns growing above their tiny ears. That’s when a maiden and her companions who are trotting through the forest on horse back appear. When the Urgals receive the signal, they attack. The maiden’s escorts are killed leaving her to fend for herself until she’s knocked off her horse. After pursuing her the shade sets a ring of flame ablaze around her and threatens her for the stone she carries. The maiden refuses and makes the stone vanish, using up what little strength she had left.

    This is where Eragon is introduced. He comes into the story as a boy who’d already been tracking the same group of deer for nearly three days. The story goes into great detail of his journey through the spine and of his wariness. Exhausted, but determined, the young boy continues his hunt. Just when it seems Eragon will catch his prey, an explosion erupted and a smooth, flawless, blue stone lay on the ground before him. After losing his prey Eragon thought of trying to trade the stone for some meat back in his village of Carvahall. Eragon returns and attempts to bargain with the butcher Sloan who wasn’t about to make it easy for Eragon. He wouldn’t take the stone once he learned that it came from The Spine. After arguing with Sloan for several minutes Sloan’s daughter, Katrina, enters the shop with the blacksmith Horst. Horst buys the meat for Eragon after he agreed to work to pay him back. Eventually, like in the movie, Eragon returns home and meets with Roran only to find out he is leaving. Before he leaves a group of traders visited the village and Eragon took the stone to be examined to have it’s value determined. Eragon and his uncle don’t have any luck with the stone but sometime during that same night Eragon stops in and listens to Brom tell his stories of the dragons and their riders. To summarize what happens after this, Roran does leave, but before he does you learn of his affections towards Sloan’s daughter. After the egg hatches Eragon constantly finds himself asking Brom about dragons and eventually about dragon names when he decides to name his dragon Saphira. My evaluation of the book is that it contains far more detail than the movie. Just the introduction alone does not tell the whole story before it has a chance to unfold, and it leaves much to the imagination. The book tells many stories within a bigger, grander adventure and keeps you wondering what will happen next.

    Eragon really is a magnificent book. It draws you into a wonderful world of make-believe with danger present around every corner. One of the greatest aspects of the book are the constant struggles Eragon faces with inner conflict. It is this constant struggle for inner peace that helps readers relate to the story and keep them interested. In the end, the book makes up for what the movie lacks, the element of surprise that captivates and holds the audiences attention, the details and the smaller stories that make up the entire story, and scenes depicting the intensity of Eragon‘s struggles with himself as well as the world around him. After all is said and done, I will say that I would prefer to get cozy with my Eragon book and spend the entire day reading it, than waist an hour and a half watching its movie counterpart. Many people may argue that they liked, or even loved the movie and I do know that the movie does have it’s perks like baby Saphira who was cute and even the ferocious adult Saphira. However I will argue back that the majority of people who saw the movie and loved it were either children, or teenagers and adults who had never read the book. In the end the only way to truly understand this evaluation and gain full knowledge of the vast differences between the movie and the book, is to read and watch Eragon. This evaluation is purely opinion and everyone here is free to explore my topic in more detail in order to develop an opinion of their own. In fact, I implore the readers of this essay to do just that.