Eragon - Book Vs. Movie

Eragon by Christopher Paolini is a story about a young farm boy who becomes a Dragon Rider and fights the tyrannical rule of the Empire. A movie with the same name was later made with the same basic story, but had many disturbances that altered the original story greatly. Many characters lost some characteristics, or entirely disappeared, events were altered carelessly and the overall impact was lost. Though still similar in guidelines, the movie had no impact, and the important events were put together with little thought.

The main difference between the movie and the book was the impact that each of them had. The book was a fascinating read, full of development, plot and character. The movie however, had little of these aspects. The growing up of Saphira the dragon under the care of Eragon was completely taken away, so the strong bond that was made between them growing up was not shown. As well, the journey with Brom was cut to a very short time, therefore lessening the impact of Brom’s death as there was little build up of a relation between Eragon and Brom. Moreover, the time Eragon had with his village in the beginning of the story was removed, therefore totally destroying the heartbreaking effect of Eragon leaving his village.

Another disturbing change was the altering or disappearance of main characters. The characters from Eragon’s village were totally removed, and little was shown about Garrow and Roran, his family. As well, Murtagh, Eragon’s companion after Brom’s death and fellow hunter of the Raz’zac was changed to little more than a bowman that did very little in the journey. In the original story, it was him that saves Eragon from the Raz’zac, but that did not happen; him that shot the Shade in the head, but it was Eragon who did it in the movie and it was he who bested Eragon in swords and pushed him to develop more skills than he learned from Brom. Moreover, many characters in the Varden that befriends Eragon for life simply vanished from the movie.

Along with the loss of impact and change in characters, comes change in the main story line. Many events were removed or misplaced in the changing of book to movie, the main one being Brom’s death. In the story, he was killed in when he took the Raz’zac’s knife for Eragon when they were ambushed and captured by them. In the movie however, he was killed during the rescue of Arya, taking a spear thrown by Durza the Shade for Eragon, when he should have been dead weeks ago in the book. As well, during the rescue of the elf, Arya, she was perfectly fine after the Shade’s disappearance when in the book, she was in a coma state, covered in marks of torture and had to be carried out on Saphira and all the way to the Varden.

Though the process of changing a book in to a movie is difficult and requires alteration of the original story, many changes that were made were unjustified. Though things like the final fight with the Shade Durza and the death of Brom remained, its overall impact was lost with the disappearance of many influencing characters. As well, much of the plot was chopped up and either removed or distorted. Thus the movie does not come close to the greatness of the original story.