After last weekend, when I barely left my bed, I had hoped to catch up with some of the movies that are finally getting a wide release. like Pan's Labyrinth and The Last King Of Scotland. Instead, I saw Eragon.
Well, it was my fault. This was the weekend Tabbatha was going to have her "girl's night out," the night I agreed to babysit Paul. But then Tabbatha's night out fell through, and I had to work Saturday, and was still recovering from the flu and incredibly tired. No problem, I figured. I'm off the hook.
But I'd told Paul we were going out, and he intended to hold me to it. I figured all along we'd go out to eat--his choice of restaurant--maybe hang out at an arcade playing Star Wars-based games, then rent a movie. But I wasn't hungry, didn't feel like hanging out at an arcade, and never got around to renting Raiders Of The Lost Ark. I did, however, notice Eragon was playing at the local second-run theater, and it's only five bucks a person, which includes popcorn and a drink. What's to lose?
Nothing, as it turns out--I had a great time. True, Eragon is a pretty silly movie, and its wholesale borrowings from Star Wars and The Lord Of the Rings couldn't be more obvious (certainly not to Paul, who was constantly saying things like "He's going to turn out to be a fake Obi-Wan" and "He has to go rescue a princess? Is she named Leia?"), and watching actors like Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle and especially John Malkovich (looked like his scenes were shot in one fifteen-minute block) try to maintain some sense of dignity while competing with CGI critters and silly dialogue provided some amusement.
But it did seem to realize it was basically aimed at kids, and didn't weigh itself down with hipster irony or painfully prolonged plot complications. It zipped along, had a pretty cool looking dragon and did its job with admirable efficiency. More importantly, Paul loved it, and watching his obvious delight ("Is the dragon okay? They won't kill the dragon, will they?") I couldn't help but remember my enthusiasm as a kid every time I saw a movie in a theater, and how important it was to talk about it and act it out afterward. And sure enough, Paul wanted to talk--"Are they going to make another one? Because the King has an evil dragon, and they didn't do anything about it. They'd better make another one..." And I was happy to listen.
As a lifelong moviegoer, you'd think I'd already know things like this, but apparently I didn't: Sometimes, it really isn't about the movie. Sometimes, it's about the experience.
