In fact, the meaning of this is not to destroy the value of "Dragon Knight". From some perspectives, this film should be attributed to a successful work, but it is a pity that it was born after "The Lord of the Rings". Existence, this film is obviously easy to be underestimated.
"Dragon Rider" is the first in Christopher's "legacy trilogy", the book's rapid rise is legendary. In 2003, the author himself took the privately printed version of this book and sold it to passersby on the street like a hawker, and those so-called readers bought it only out of curiosity. But three years later, the book has been turned into a film, and 20th Century Fox has acquired all the film rights to the so-called "legacy trilogy." The whole incident is described in the film as "yesterday you were a farmer's child, today you have become a hero." This slightly American dream story will make many young people follow suit.
But all this behind-the-scenes is just the birth of a legend, which has nothing to do with the story in this book. Due to the high praise of the original book, the film has been unable to escape two fates since its birth. Comparison with the original book. This is an innate test, and unfortunately, the film did not withstand this test. Excessive starting point and expectations make it destined to become a classic work of disproving evidence.
Magical themes are popular in modern society. After "The Lord of the Rings", films such as "The Chronicles of Narnia", "The Ring of Beronnegan", and even Russia's "Night Watch" appeared one after another. In these films , only "Night Watchman" gives people a refreshing feeling, and the magical epic statement is naturally very pale. Fortunately, "Dragon Knight" is only the first, and its epic nature has not been fully discovered.
But in fact, the so-called epic of this film is indeed not well expressed in the film. Although the production of special effects is justified, the scene is too cramped to make people feel that this is just a B-type film in the United States, and all the exterior scenes are far inferior. The Lord of the Rings came with great momentum, perhaps because of funding problems, or because of the idea of borrowing the east wind. That kind of grand style was not in the director's or screenwriter's consideration at all. In terms of technical scenes and costumes and props, this film is somewhat inferior to "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Ring of Beronnegan", which is the main reason for its failure.
Abandon these so-called means of film and television performance, let us focus on the story itself. This is a story of a farmer's child growing into a hero. The growth of a poor man into a hero has always been the theme of some legendary movies. As for the so-called elves, dwarves and giants, the backgrounds of such things are secondary, and they just serve as a foil for the characters. . So Eragon was fortunate to be the protagonist of this story. He accidentally got a dragon egg and became the owner of the dragon, the so-called dragon knight.
Destiny, once the identity is established, the rest is almost an unchangeable destiny. This is the fate of the hero. There is no choice. If you choose, I am afraid it will be the opposite of running towards justice. Such juvenile growth has become a pattern, but as a novel, the protagonist obviously cannot survive according to this predetermined pattern, otherwise it will be boring, so the usual practice of such novels is to let the protagonist live. Often break the so-called rules.
The fate of the farmer's child is either to continue to be a farmer, or to join the army of the bad guys, but due to the sudden mutation of his identity, he has another choice. In this case, Eragon should be in a state of ignorance, and what he should show is a kind of extreme discomfort in the face of the sudden change. Therefore, the death of the uncle in the film is the beginning of this incompatibility, and it is also the plot that completes this transformation of identity. The film made a detailed description of Eragon's performance, including his driving away the flying dragon, including his single-minded belief that he could save his uncle.
But in fact, Broom's presence spoils the plot before it's done, because there is no imminent danger, because of a funeral by fire, because of Eragorn's instant recognition of his dragon knighthood, that The transformation from ordinary people to dragon knights seems too fast to be credible. The untrustworthiness mentioned here is by no means a denial of magic, but a denial of the character's heart.
In fact, the film lacks too much in terms of character building. In addition to this lack of identity change, there is also a quick success in that kind of skills, which is quite an interesting thing. For example, in the eastern culture, there is a saying of epiphany, so a small person can achieve a rapid surpassing in martial arts or skills after being opened to the governor, but the author of Eragorn's Floo does not agree with it, because the so-called spell , the so-called skills have external signs, so I can believe that Eragon will complete this improvement in a short time. It's a lot more far-fetched than the immutability of Frodo the Hobbit in The Lord of the Rings. In fact, in the development of skills, the film has a progressive relationship with the technology of Eragon's flying dragons, first falling, then riding, and running to the end in the last battle. This sequence makes People are credible, as for the heroism of those magic and those fighting, it is indeed uncomplimentable. Of course, the film lacks such foreshadowing in the process of adapting the original work, which is a very fatal adaptation.
In fact, going back to what I said earlier, compared to the unreliability of the skill leap, the lack of inner growth of the characters is the real fatal thing, aside from the identification of identity, but what is the will? As a dragon knight, does it mean that you have to embark on the doomed road of no return? Eragon did not resist this fate. The premise here is that the hatred of Eragon's dead uncle is not manifested, and the evil of that dark world is not enough, so his so-called reason for resistance is obviously not sufficient. In this case, he obeyed the old dragon knight Brom. Although some details show that this obedience is not die-hard, most of them are described by lines, which are not in-depth enough. It is worth mentioning that the scene of saving the princess should be the best embodiment of Eragon's initiative. Although Brom's life was lost because of this, this detail reflects Eragon's unique personality, which is very important. of. As with many magical works, the act itself will never please the audience, especially if the consequence is an unwilling loss, but it does the finishing touch to the characters. Sadly, there are so few such episodes.
Except for Eragon, the roles and personalities of other people in the film have not been better displayed. The princess lacks the nobility and elegance in the original book. Brom is just a symbol, and the sadness and awakening seem very Thin, the shadow wizard is obviously not evil enough, as for the others, it is just like a dragonfly.
Fortunately, this is the first part of the "Legacy Trilogy". Maybe each character will be further improved in subsequent stories, but the premise is that such a level of screenwriting has obviously lost the essence of the original work. If it continues to change, I'm afraid what we continue to see is a missing work of magic.
Han Xi
2007-4-6 in Tongzhou
View more about Eragon reviews
