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the character designs were as insightful and unique, as the dimwitted Urgals and even Durza himself was quite bland in comparison to the villains in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. The final battle at the end of the film was brimming with potential as a fire-breathing dragon joined in the mayhem, but perhaps the PG rating stifled the visceral impact of any carnage finding its way onscreen. But that's really no excuse for a languid showdown as the rather tame onslaught in Narnia was still more exciting.

The actors all did a fine job with their performances, but they had very little to work with as the oftentimes downright miserable script created several scenes of cringe inducing dialogue and unintentionally hilarious remarks. Conversations between key players did little to further the story or enhance character development and extremely predictable dialogue lessened the visual impact. Djimon Hounsou seemed miscast as the rebel leader with his heavy accent, while John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle laid on the evilness with enough cheese to feed the cast of Flushed Away. Lines like "you'll have to do better than that," and "let's finish this!" in climactic moments made me wonder if I was watching a bad Star Wars fan film. Even Rachel Weisz couldn't save her majestic character from an audience outburst of immature laughs when she mentions something about Eragon needing to ride her.

It's hard to imagine what went wrong with the first part of this trilogy, but I can't honestly recommend seeing the film to find out. Suffice it to say that the rushed character development, atrocious screenplay, and unabashed imitation converge to create a paltry effort that pales in comparison to fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Chronicles of Narnia. As Jeremy Irons' Brom would say, "it is better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission," and the creators of this contemptible film may be doing a lot of the former to the legions of fans of Paolini's novel.

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