Was Eragon as Bad as Everyone Says?
I Finally Watched Eragon and Here’s the Tea: It’s January 10, 2007, and I just came back from watching Eragon at Glorietta 4. Yes, that Eragon. The one that’s been sitting at the low end of Rotten Tomatoes with a critic score hovering around 16% and audience reactions all over the place. After hearing people bash it for weeks, I finally decided to find out for myself. I’m a sucker for fantasy films, and a story about a farm boy finding a dragon egg? Sounds like the kind of escapism I’d usually be all for.
Let’s just say I went in hoping to be surprised. The trailer had great visuals, Jeremy Irons was in it, and the music from Patrick Doyle (who scored Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) gave it some serious promise. But by the end of the film, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was… missing. Not terrible, but not satisfying either. You know that hollow feeling when you expect fireworks and you get sparklers? That was Eragon.
📚 Table of Contents
1. Glorietta 4, Movie Passes, and a New Bunny 2. The Plot Started Strong but Then What Happened 3. The Dragon Looked Cool but Something Felt Off 4. These Scenes Were So Rushed I Blinked and Missed It 5. Arya and Brom Deserved So Much Better 6. The Book Had Magic This Movie Forgot to Use 7. What This Movie Could’ve Learned from Potter 8. Did I Waste My Time or Was It Still Worth It? 9. Eragon Isn’t the Worst but It’s Pretty Close 10. FAQ About the Eragon 2006 MovieGlorietta 4, Movie Passes, and a New Bunny
It’s Wednesday. I took another three-days leave excluding my one day off this week. Well, I was planning to go and consider the invitation I had with HSBC as an Assistant Manager for Operations however, something came up which I thought is a better idea.
And so, Arcy and I went to Glorietta 4 to watch Eragon! Anyway, we used this so-called prepaid movie passes valid only in Ayala Malls and I think it's kind of handy when you need it. The prepaid is worth Php 100.00 each pass and I got them for only Php 80.00 each. Thanks to Rada for selling me such usable stuff.
Right after the movie, we literally ran towards Bio Research store to pick up the new rabbit that we bought earlier before we went inside the movie house. Details are in a separate post, but yeah, it was a movie day and a bunny day all in one. That alone made the outing memorable regardless of what the movie turned out to be.
The Plot Started Strong but Then What Happened
The movie kicks off with a promising premise. A young farm boy named Eragon finds a mysterious glowing blue stone in the forest, which turns out to be a dragon egg. It hatches into Saphira, a dragon he bonds with through a magical connection. Pretty soon, he’s swept into a rebellion against the evil King Galbatorix, a once-noble Dragon Rider turned tyrant. It’s got all the classic fantasy ingredients. Boy meets dragon. Dragon becomes ally. Mentor shows up. Big bad looms in the background.
But here’s where it gets frustrating. The story moves so fast that it barely lets anything sink in. One moment Eragon is chasing deer in the woods, and the next he’s apparently ready to fight elite soldiers with zero training. There’s no time to feel his struggle or understand his growth. Even key plot points like Brom’s backstory or the introduction of the Varden—the rebel group—are glossed over with exposition dumps instead of emotional storytelling.
The pacing felt like the film was racing toward a sequel that might never come. And honestly, with how things wrapped up, I’m not sure anyone in the theater is dying for part two.
The Dragon Looked Cool but Something Felt Off
Visually, Saphira was one of the better parts of the movie. Her flight scenes were graceful, and her bond with Eragon was presented with sincerity. The voice work by Rachel Weisz gave her a gentle but wise presence, which helped elevate her from just being a CGI prop. The sequence where she grows into an adult dragon mid-flight? That got a few audible wows in the cinema.
But even with the decent visual effects for 2006, the dragon-human interaction sometimes felt stiff. You can tell where the budget started to strain. Some of the close-up scenes didn’t quite hit the emotional beats they were aiming for. Compared to the level of detail in something like The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, Eragon fell short.
👉 FUN FACT: Industrial Light & Magic, the same team behind Star Wars and Jurassic Park, worked on Saphira’s design. Despite that pedigree, they only had a few months to develop her CGI model due to the film’s rushed production schedule.
These Scenes Were So Rushed I Blinked and Missed It
You know those moments in a movie that should feel like a punch to the gut? Like a mentor’s death, or the hero realizing their true power? In Eragon, those moments are present… but barely. Brom’s death, which should’ve felt like a heartbreaking turning point, just kind of happens. No buildup, no meaningful pause to grieve, and then we’re off to the next location like nothing major occurred.
Same goes for Eragon’s “training” montage. If you can even call it that. Brom teaches him sword fighting and magic in what feels like the span of two afternoons. Before we know it, Eragon is performing spells and taking on elite soldiers. There’s no sense of earned power or growth, which makes the final battle feel completely unearned.
Each of these scenes had potential to hit hard emotionally. Instead, they felt like checkpoints the movie needed to rush through.
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Arya and Brom Deserved So Much Better
One of the biggest disappointments was how underused the supporting characters were. Brom, played by Jeremy Irons, could have carried this movie with the right material. He had the perfect mix of grit and weariness to be a believable mentor figure, but the script gave him so little to work with. His backstory as a former Rider is tossed in almost as an afterthought, and his relationship with Eragon never gets enough time to evolve.
Then there’s Arya, the elf warrior played by Sienna Guillory. She’s introduced early on, unconscious and imprisoned, then suddenly becomes a key figure in the Varden without much explanation. There’s no real chemistry between her and Eragon, no tension, no buildup. You could replace her with a magical scroll and the story wouldn’t change much.
These characters had so much potential if only the film gave them space. The book, from what I’ve heard, goes deeper into their arcs. But on screen, they felt like props rather than people we’re supposed to care about. It’s almost like the film expected us to already know who they were, without putting in the work to earn that recognition.
The Book Had Magic This Movie Forgot to Use
I haven’t read the entire book yet, but after watching the film, I skimmed through a few chapters of Eragon by Christopher Paolini just to compare. The difference is night and day. In the book, there’s rich lore, character introspection, and detailed explanations of how the magic system works. You get the sense that Alagaësia is a lived-in world with depth and history. In the movie? Most of that depth gets trimmed down to narration or one-liner explanations that never stick.
The magic in particular felt undercooked. Eragon performs spells without understanding their cost or rules. There’s no clear limitation to what he can or cannot do, and because of that, the tension falls flat. A good fantasy story needs rules, and when magic is treated like a shortcut, it weakens the journey. The film seemed to rely on quick visuals instead of storytelling, and in the end, that shortcut did it no favors.
What This Movie Could’ve Learned from Potter
It’s hard not to compare Eragon to other fantasy franchises that nailed the balance of adaptation, pacing, and worldbuilding. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which came out just five years ago in 2001, gave us magic, character growth, and a sense of wonder that pulled audiences in whether they read the books or not. The Lord of the Rings trilogy also showed us that high fantasy could be emotional and epic without losing clarity.
Eragon had the same kind of blueprint. A young chosen one, a wise mentor, a magical creature, and an evil ruler. But where Potter took its time to let the story unfold, Eragon skipped steps. There was no proper setup, no real payoff. It felt like someone tried to cram an entire trilogy into one film. Even the emotional beats that should have mirrored Harry and Hagrid or Frodo and Gandalf just didn’t land.
👉 FUN FACT: The screenplay for Eragon was written by Peter Buchman, who also wrote Jurassic Park III. While he had blockbuster experience, he had never adapted a fantasy novel before. The lack of genre-specific pacing may explain some of the disjointed scenes.
Did I Waste My Time or Was It Still Worth It?
Even though I’ve pointed out a lot of flaws, I don’t totally regret watching Eragon. It had a few moments that genuinely entertained me, especially the scenes where Saphira interacts with Eragon in flight. The music score was decent too, with composer Patrick Doyle adding some much-needed emotional layers. Visually, for a 2006 film, it tried its best, and the production design had hints of something greater that just never fully came together.
But as a full experience, it felt like a wasted opportunity. With better writing and pacing, this could have been a solid launch for a fantasy franchise. Instead, it came off like a rushed attempt to ride the coattails of Potter and LOTR. So was it worth the hundred pesos for the movie ticket? With the discount and a bunny waiting afterward, I’d say it was passable entertainment. Just don’t expect to be blown away.
Eragon Isn’t the Worst but It’s Pretty Close
Let’s be real. I’ve seen worse films. But for a movie that had a built-in fanbase and one of the most promising fantasy plots on paper, Eragon fumbled hard. The studio clearly hoped to start a multi-film saga. That dream looks shaky now. According to Box Office Mojo, the film earned around $75 million domestically, which isn’t bad, but it’s far from the numbers needed to justify sequels on this scale. International sales helped, but poor reviews may have already buried the hype.
What stings most is the unrealized potential. A young adult fantasy series with dragons and ancient magic should have been a slam dunk. Yet here we are. Book fans are upset, casual moviegoers are confused, and critics are almost universally unimpressed. I walked in hoping to discover a new favorite and left feeling like I saw a rushed summary of something better.
Still, I want to know what others thought. Am I being too harsh? Did I miss some subtle brilliance under all that CGI? Let me know in the comments or wherever this post finds you. I’m curious how many others walked out of the cinema thinking the same thing I did.
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