Eragon is about a boy named Eragon (newcomer Speleers), who becomes a new breed of dragon riders in this fantasy movie. Eragon finds a strange jewel in the forest, thinking it'll put food on the table, but it turns out to be a dragon's egg. Which becomes a full-fledged dragon (Saphira, voiced by actress Rachel Weisz) in a matter of days. He soon encounters Brom (Irons) and becomes involved with rebels headed up by their king (Hounsou) to try and take down evil King Galbatorix (Malkovich).

This movie, in case you didn't know, is based off of a book written by a then-15-yr-old boy named Christopher Paolini. His family self-published the book and then dropped everything to drive him around and help him promote it. It definitely paid off. His second tome (and believe me, both books are about as thick as the recent Harry Potter books) will probably bring about another movie (they definitely left it open for a sequel) and I just saw a commercial for Eragon, the video game.

I went to see this with my hubby and one of his friends a couple of weeks ago, who then proceeded to point out the similarities to Star Wars. I'm not even gonna go there, because I have to live with Star Wars (Darth Maul, to be exact) paraphenalia in my house on a daily basis. So, maybe they had a point. Big whoop! The boy was 15 after all, but he's making hella bucks right now.

I liked it. I never read the books (same goes for Harry Potter, but I enjoyed all the movies), but I was diggin' the whole Beastmaster take. A rider doesn't choose the dragon, the dragon chooses the rider. And then they're bonded for life. Literally. A dragon can die without it's rider. But if a rider dies, so does the dragon. They communicate with one another via telepathy, and the riders gain certain special abilities. One of which I refer to as "Dragon Vision": seeing what the dragon sees.

I'm not sure what the general consensus was for fans of the book. I don't know anyone who's read the book and seen the movie. Did it suck for you? Was it true to form? Did they do a horrible job? A good job? Did Christopher Paolini like it or does he wish he never agreed to release the movie rights? Let me know. But these novice eyes liked it and I look forward to seeing the second one.

Review: 3 1/2 Snaps Up.