In "Eragon," in the gorgeous middle earth that is Alagaesia, the evil Galbatorix (John Malkovich) has destroyed all the dragon riders and taken over in your usual today-Alagaesia-tomorrow-the-world fashion. Meanwhile, a young beauty played dimly by Sienna Guillory escapes from his castle with the last dragon egg, which, though she is pursued by evil shade Durza (Robert Carlyle), she manages to deliver to farm boy-archer Eragon, fated to be the new dragon rider. Eragon: Air Dragon, get it?

The little beast is born, a kind of blue, feathered puppy that sounds just like R2-D2 and seems to arrive already housebroken. Soon enough, it's as big as a locomotive, and fallen hero Brom (Jeremy Irons) shows up to teach the kid the ropes, get him out of the country to the hinterlands where the freedom-fighting Vardon live and let him lead the revolution against Galbatorix.

Alas, these great actors and this great dragon revolve around a rather dim young man named Edward Speleers, who appears to be pleasant enough but has the charisma of a smile button, as well as the complexity.

Well, there's a lot of running around and medieval snippery, but the upshot is a big battle under the ground, which comes to turn on a dragon-to-dragon dogfight over the trenches. It's definitely the highlight of the movie and the one instance where director Stefen Fangmeier, an ex-special-effects computer ace, can show his stuff.

After the bad acting by the slumming great actors, the next best thing in the picture is the dragon. Though I don't think giving it a cuddly human personality and the vocals of Rachel Weisz helps much, the thing itself, part dog, part fish, part weasel, part dinosaur, is a terrific illusion, and the technical team manages to really sell the idea of flight.

Too bad the acting is so lame, the story so derivative and the thing so long.

-- Stephen Hunter

Contains ample but bloodless battle violence.