1. I've noticed that a lot of people in the books forum ask "which is better? LOTR or Eragon?" Where do you get off comparing Eragon to LOTR? JRR Tolkien was a genius. His plot was original, his characters were three-dimensional, and the way he described things painted such a mind-blowing picture in your head. Christopher Paolini was a disillusional teenager who had, and still has, no idea how to create three-dimensional characters, or paint those mind-blowing pictures in your head, and all Eragon is is the lovechild of George Lucas (Star Wars) and JRR Tolkien (LOTR).
It's similar to Star Wars in that Eragon grew up in a small village with his uncle (LUKE SKYWALKER), when his uncle dies, he gets upset and pissed and goes on a journey (LUKE SKYWALKER) where he discovers that he's a very important person and he's destined to join a rank of protectors of the people (LUKE ******** SKYWALKER) and a relative betrays him (MURTAGH=DARTH VADER, except Darth Vader was the dad.) Oh yeah, his mom gives birth and is never seen again. (SELENA=PRINCESS WHAT'S-HER-FACE). He has a sibling who was seperated from him at birth (MURTAGH=PRINCESS LEAH, ERAGON=LUKE SKYWALKER)... There's just so much more.
It's similar to LOTR in that Arya is like a Mary-Sue version of Arwin, Ajihad=Eowyn's dad (forgot his name), Ajihad's daughter=Eowyn. Eragon is so obviously going to be crowned king at the end of the series (which is another one of my problems with Eragon. You can see everything coming from miles away.) just like Aragorn. Even their names are similar. Eragon, Aragorn, Eragon, Aragorn...The similarities are absolutely striking.

2. The elves. Oh, the elves.
Paolini's elves are depicted as: powerful, beautiful, intelligent, graceful, depressed, pointy-eared, tall, thin, humanoid creatures who live in a forest that's protected by magic and can't be entered by any other creature without an elf's permission.
Tolkien's elves are depicted as: powerful, beautiful, intelligent, graceful, depressed, pointy-eared, tall, thin, humanoid creatures who live in a forest that's protected by magic and can't be entered by any other creature without an elf's permission.
Wait a minute...Something is odd here.

3. The names.
Brom=Boromir
Eragon=Aragorn
Arya=Arwen
Isenstar=Isengard
Isidar Mithrim=A combo assault of Isildur and Mithril (Gaia stole mithril, too! The bastards! xd )
Ceranthor=Caranthir
The only name that doesn't sound familiar is Galbatorix, but I bet that Paolini molded a name into Galbatorix, just like the others.
Paolini was being completely juvenile in that he thought that moving a few letters around would fix everything. Shocker! It didn't.

In short, my friends, LOTR totally whoops Eragon's pathetic little a**.