Eragon : 3 of 5

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I never thought I would be going to see it, but since my parents and I love to go to the theater a few times during the holidays, it seemed like it might be fun to check it out. It turned out to be a surprisingly great time, and we all enjoyed it! I've never heard of the book this story is based on, but the plot is so much like Star Wars that someone should be ashamed! A farm boy meets an old former knight and they go rescue a princess - there's even a Han Solo kind of character. But putting that aside, Eragon is a nice fantasy adventure to just sit back and enjoy for a while. There are plenty of cliches and nothing is super original, but it's exciting to see a dragon in action! The effects were much better than I expected, especially during the flying sequences (and of course, no can resist a cute blue-eyed dragon hatching from an egg). The acting is decent enough (especially from Jeremy Irons), but John Malkovich is kind of silly as the evil king with 10 minutes of screen time (just a setup for the sequel, really!). So, I'm glad this was one of my holiday movies this year, and now I'm a dragon fan!