Although the title may lead the average moviegoer to believe that Eragon is one of that slew of mistyped Dragon movies we remember fondly from childhood - Sragon (1994), Fragon (1989), and the classic Dragpk (1979) - it is in fact in a class by itself, sort of like a retarded kid in a small school.

Eragon is loosely based on the fantasy bestseller Kevin the Dragon, a phenomenal work by a 15 year-old savant about a little-leaguer named Clyde whose discovery of a magical baseball bat enables him to lead his team to the Little League World Series. Despite his young age, the author showed sophistication and defied readers' expectations by including neither dragons nor a character named Kevin.

Readers of the original book may be surprised at several deviations from the plot. First of all, the main character is no longer named Clyde but Eragon, and the plot instead centers on his lifelong struggle with bureaucracies. The movie now contains a literal dragon, originally to be named Kevin, but the studio rejected the name as not "fantasy" enough, and it was changed to Stephanie Wiederman for the final version.

After winning Stephanie Wiederman in a local mall's contest to guess how many jellybeans were in a jar, Eragon hits puberty, and in a freak surge of testosterone, decides to attack Canada. After a hilarious series of setbacks, he finds himself alone and stranded in Canada, battling unsympathetic immigration workers and a confusing health care system. He then discovers Stephanie Wiederman's magical powers of filling out forms and the two become almost unstoppable.

While differing from the book in a number of aspects, the film stays true to the heart of the story in that Eragon wins the Little League World Series at the end.

The special effects were good overall, but in a number of shots it was painfully clear the dragon was an origami model shot very close in the foreground with the actors standing way in the distance. Several times, the fire breath effects (cigarette lighter visible in the frame) set the model itself on fire.

The acting was spectacularly wooden, with Keanu Reeves in top form as Eragon and a broomstick with a dress on it as the girl who steals his heart.

A good family film. Just be sure to cover your kids' eyes at the decapitation, disembowelling, eye gouging, and rape parts, and the part where the dragon melts in a pool of radioactive waste. Five stars.