Reign of Fire

`Reign of Fire's' premise is simple: the world has been wiped out by airborne, fire-breathing dragons, who at first multiplied by the thousands but now themselves are starving and dying off. A few bands of people remain here and there trying to survive. Quinn (Christian Bale, with whiskers and glottal stops), who was on the scene as a boy in London when the first sleeping dragon awakened in a cave unearthed by an Underground project his mum was working on, leads a group of survivors in the north of England who're just trying to get a crop going for the next year and save a little mob of children. In comes Van Zan (Mathew McConaughey, with shaved head and brawny tattooed arms) leading an American helicopter crew. He's become a dragon slayer and since he's found there's only one male dragon left and it's somewhere around London, he's come to solicit aid. Quinn refuses. Van Zan pushes on to London without Quinn. They fail. He returns and begs Quinn to come as guide. What follows is the finale.

If you probe too deeply into the premise you're not going to have any fun, but fun is what this movie offers, glorious mindless fun and, above all, fabulous apocalyptic visuals of twisted metal, crepuscular landscapes, dark hulking ruins, and men crawling through them to fire off weapons at the evil birds, which look very graceful as they sweep through the skies and spurt out long expanding streams of fire. Shots are so stunningly composed you want them to freeze-frame. Within the dark end-of-the-world light there is amazing clarity. Working with Ridley Scott's cinematographer Adrian Biddle, X-Files director Rob Bowman has produced the best fantasy landscape this year next to `Lord of the Rings.' When Van Zan leads a hunt in the sky, it's like a computer game, and sometimes we see the game through the eyes of the dragon and it looks like a degraded digital film. However, it's not ingenuity of conception but sheer aesthetic appeal that makes the visuals of this movie so good.

The other large positive factor is the very solid, mostly English cast including a number of appealing youngsters led by Scott James Moutter as Jared, Quinn's adopted son, not to mention Bale, who brings a striking level of naturalness and conviction to his role as the sensitive, conscience-stricken Quinn. Bale's a foil to McConaughey's American macho militarist icon. McConaughey, whose finely chiseled face can be seen staring in mirrors in `Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,' is having a lark playing a brute here, but in the moments when he isn't shouting, he gives Van Zan almost as much conviction as Bale gives Quinn. Ladies are in short supply in this story: there's Alex (Izabella Scorupco) as Van Zan's helicopter pilot who winds up with Quinn, and for five minutes there's Alice Krige as young Quinn's mum. But since this movie's ideal audience might surely be young teenage boys, that's probably enough. Other things are lacking too, such as more variety in the dragons, more recognizable details of the wrecked London of the final scenes, some more colorful characters among Quinn's community, as in post-apocalyptic classics like `Mad Max.' But to say that is to miss the point, which is that this is a fast, exhilarating ride that's a feast for the eyes. If you want to view all this as a `B' horror picture, fine: just grant that it's a first-class version. To be seen, by all means, on a big screen, preferably in a big, old-time movie house.

The usual quota of "surface reviews" here. Are we living in a totally one-dimensional society these days that has no time now for unsupported fantasy - "Just the facts Ma'am, Just the facts!"

We have here an adult fairytale no less, yet what do I read (and I include paid media critics here) but absurd negative comments such as "How did McConaughey and his intrepid band of marines come up with the fuel to cross the atlantic?" "Why are the children seemingly so well fed in a period of pestilence?" "Where does the seemingly limitless fuel come from?" etc etc. Who CARES????????? this is a DRAGON fantasy for God sakes! Someone want to set up a Government enquiry as to why fairies speak English? the possibility that Humpty Dumpty had a middle-ear infection? Perhaps the Easter Bunny has some communicable diseases that he should be tested for?

Ok REIGN OF FIRE is not up there with other sci-fi classics and the marketing department should be answering charges of misrepresentation for that poster showing an aerial armada of helicopters battling the fire-breathing beasties over central London - that just never happens but I gotta tell you REIGN OF FIRE has some of the greatest set designs and cinematography I have ever seen. It is extremely interesting to LOOK at from a technical viewpoint. The dragons themselves make the least interesting contribution to the film and except for the final confrontation which almost "gets there" they are really secondary to the film itself. If you were to actually record the amount of dragon "screen time" I doubt it would be 18 minutes....and most of them are not far off laughable. Curiously, that aspect alone should have wrecked it for me...but it didn't - I found the "wasteland asharamas" totally credible and involving.

I thought the much maligned McConaughey's role not without interest. Still haven't worked out whether or not "Mad Matt" was supposed to be some hybrid creation - part Patton, part Maximus, part Captain Ahab or just all "grunt." He certainly handled his last solo flight with flair and derring-do. Basil Rathbone himself never swung a meaner sword! Christian Bale replete with his best "know wot I mean" brit accent was pretty good I thought as Quinn the reluctant colony leader. What I couldn't believe is how the years have treated Izabella Scorupco the most beautiful Bond girl I ever saw (GOLDENEYE). I realise that a decade of fighting dragons and close-contact aeriel combat takes a lot out of a girl but she looked 20 years older! I would never have recognised her. Totally shattered an illusion I have maintained of her. If she said "Boys with Toys" now, I think I'd need a double vodka-martini!

But I digress. The dragon fx were just so-so, they saved the best for last sensibly. The script had its moments but the production work and set-design were simply awesome...SO good in fact, the rest of the film really didn't matter! Overall I would bequeath it a 6.9. Worth seeing if one is prepared to watch it in the spirit that it was made.

As long as you're not expecting the best movie ever made, you'll enjoy this film. It's well-acted, well written, visually depressing (as a post-apocalyptic story should be), and inspiring. If you're a pop culture geek, you'll love all the faces you'll recognize from other projects such as the Dark Knight Trilogy, 300, Gotham, and Game of Thrones. You'll even spot homage to Star Wars in an old-school play! This movie was fun and moving.

This is an excellent dark fantasy, an adult fantasy, if you will and the acting is well up to the story. It is a good tight script and keeps a fast pace. The allegory of a post nuclear age brought on by the advent of dragons freed from a millennial dormancy, points to the problems of survival in such a world. Many of our greatest science fiction authors have speculated on this, and this film tends to bring it all together nicely.

My one complaint with this film is that it was shot so dark that it is hard to see a lot of the action. The novel idea of one male for all of the female dragons is an excellent one however. Much of the look of the dragons tends to remind one of the 1997 version of Godzilla, with the lairs of creatures underground. Christian Bale was good as Quinn, and Matthew McConaughy shines as Van Zan. Gerard Butler was wasted in the film, not because his performance was bad, by no means, but because his character needed to have more to do. Still a very watchable film.

What a cast this films has looking back at it now. Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler, Alice Krige - it's a shame that the film itself is a little underdeveloped to match that star power.

Set in a desolate future, when long-hibernating fire-breathing dragons have been awoken and have all but destroyed all forms of life on the planet. Quinn (Christian Bale) desperately hangs on with a small group of survivors, based at a castle in the North East of England. His hopes of survival seem lost when his vital crop field is discovered and destroyed - but then an American military unit, let by the brutish Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) arrives. But are they saviours, or just another threat?

Director Rob Bowman earned his moment in Hollywood directing and producing episodes of "The X-Files", which got him this film, and then "Elektra" which seems to have consigned him back to the small screen for the rest of his career. It's a bit of a shame, as "Reign of Fire" isn't a bad film -- the visual effects are actually pretty good, for a film that's nearly 20 years old. The performances are pretty good too, particularly from our three leads - in fact it might it's those actors that elevate the film from being little more than a B-movie.

The films just a little off pacing wise and is missing a beat or two of action in the middle. There's a scene involving Bale discovering an egg in the killed Dragon that feels like it was meant to mean more to the plot, but then that doesn't go anywhere and the film doesn't cover off any of the logistical arguments such as where Van Zan's endless fuel supply comes from. Also if you have any understanding of the geography of the UK, some aspects of the film become downright baffling.

If the action was a little better and the plot a little clearer then this might be a class film, but as it is - it's just alright alright alright).