As a fan of David and Leigh Eddings from way back, I feel that I can tell the difference between a knockoff with no literary merit and a proper retelling of an archetypal story. Eragon was not the latter. (Neither, by the way, are the Eddings' books from the middle of the Tamuli on. Just throwing that out to make sure you know I'm not fanboying here, but drawing a comparison between two authors that have received similar criticism.)

I'm under no illusions that there's any such thing as an original plot nowadays. It's possible to write an original work in spite of this through skilled writing of scenarios, characters, dialog, or what have you. Paolini did not do so. His work is bland and filled with rookie writer mistakes. It's okay because he was like 17, and it's quality work compared to most 17-year-olds (I'm looking at you, fanfiction.net). It's just got nothing that makes it worth reading.

I guess this is really off-topic considering this thread's about the movie, but it's probably worth stating for background information.