Reign of Fire

Rating:
Summary: A classic is born
Review: This is the best post-apocalyptic action film since The Road Warrior. It is pitch perfect, played completely straight. A strangely neglected gem. I think it's fantastic. Period.

Rating:
Summary: It's Mad Max with dragons
Review: Take a very bleak post apocalyptic world and throw some fire spewing dragons in it and you've got Reign of Fire. A very believeable plot and some fine acting from the lead actors make for a very entertaining movie. Those who hate movies with a dark ugly bleakness about them should pass.

Rating:
Summary: Give it a break
Review: Bah! Dispite it's flaws, it wasn't THAT bad. I have a thing for watching sci-fi/fantasy concept movies no matter how bad they look like they're going to be (and are). So I've seen plenty of absolutely terrible, mediocre, poorly executed, or ludicrous movies (which is the norm sadly) and this one is no-where near that. The creators took a big risk making this movie which is more akin to a graphic novel comic book and did an adequate job setting the mood. True, good special effects alone can't save a movie but in this case I'll say that the fun concept might be broken without what I consider THE best rendered and animated dragon I've seen on film. The Amazon.com editorial was right on.

Rating:
Summary: Good action, nice package
Review: Perfect, everyone disses reign of fire over something. Nothing is ever good enough, well listen up.

The movie is about these dragons, laying waste to the world. They breed, and kill the humans. Eventually the dragons die off from hunger, and the humans rebuild, and it starts over. What really gets me is how noone feels like putting in the good word for the movie except a few people. Story rocks, its cool with dragons, knowing this is the best dragon movie out there probably. The characters are done perfectly, and you don't end up hateing them because they are not whiners.

The action heats up with the first dragon you get to see attack the humans. Scary isn't he? All the dragons are done perfectly, they look real, and look like they would rip your face off. One dragon could take out 20 people easily. Then theres the movie itself. Is it good, does it end well, is there a stupid love story? The answers to your questions, is yes. It is a good movie, action mixed with some talking. It ends great, seems a fitting spot to end and not capitalize for a sequel like so many movies try to do now. The love story is extremely small, they hardly talk about it or try to get involved with it, but its there. I would reccomend this dvd to everyone.

The sound is perfect. DTS sound is like "JEEZ MAN". yes, the dts really adds to those scary dragons. They wanted to beef up the dvd, and this was the perfect way to do it. The extras are alright, who really cares about them though. Anyways, go see the movie. They kill some dragons. Also, Pip is a good character, even though he doesn't seem like it at first.

Rating:
Summary: hot and cold
Review: REIGN OF FIRE started off very promising but then fizzled out.set 20 years into the future,the story is about a group of people who have to survive and work underground.THEREis a new breed of dragons who want to attack the humans by destroying them by blowing fire at them,and living off there burnt ashes.ALAS US SOLDIERS COME TO THE aid of the people and help them to destoy the dragons.BUT THEY are not all destroyed and the ending lets you know that there could be a possible sequel.HOWEVER THE SOUND AND SPECIAL EFFECTS are truly amazing,and this might make you enjoy a so so dvd.ADIOS TILL NEXT TIME.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT PROMISE, NO DELIVERY
Review: This disappointer had some strong potential, but ultimately copped out. The opening scene where the first male dragon escapes from the London excavation site was building some real frightening suspense, but it then BLOWS IT by suddenly jumping ahead twenty years later. WHY wasn't the story about the dragons destroying the world as those posters and trailers falsely conveyed? That would have been a far more satisfying movie, because it would have delivered much large scale action and scary tension. It could have also been intriguing to further expand on its premise when the scientists finally discover that the dragons caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. NO SUCH LUCK. As it is, this humdrum B flick only has a few fleeting moments of any real action, as the dull story just plods along with plotholes galore. They had a pretty cool initial idea, but then just sat on it. BORING!!! I know that many would like to see an epic PREQUAL showing how mankind is eventually destroyed in the fierce, massive war against the dragons. Guess Hollywood will never get hip.

Rating:
Summary: Not Red Hot
Review: * The basic premise of the action flic REIGN OF FIRE is that in the
near future, fire-breathing dragons rise from the depths of the
Earth to wreak apocalyptic destruction on humanity, with the
dragons reproducing wildly and incinerating everything before
them.

Decades after the beginning of the infestation, a small group
of survivors, led by Quinn (Christain Bale), who was the first to
see the dragons, is holed up in an ancient castle in Northumbria,
trying to survive. They receive visitors in the form of an American
combat team under the stone-hard, somewhat mad Van Zan (Matthew
McConaughey), who has discovered that the dragons have a weakness
that can be exploited to exterminate the beasts once and for all.

This sounded like a weak concept at the outset, but I decided
to take a chance and see if it were still entertaining. After
sitting through it, I have to admit it is a slick if grim
production, filmed in cold bluish colors and with good special
effects, heavy on action and testosterone and somewhat following
in the tracks of the MAD MAX movies.

However, even though REIGN OF FIRE clicks along nicely, it
isn't very satisfying in the end. I am willing to turn a blind
eye to some holes in a plot, but in this movie it's easier to
count the bricks present than the bricks missing. The story logic
is operating at about the level of a poor Saturday-morning cartoon
show, the sort which are unwatchable by adults, and in fact I can
envision this story being produced in exactly that format.
I could put up with this a bit better if this movie had much
spirit of fun, but it's pretty dingy and gloomy.

If you like a slick action production and are not too concerned
about scriptwriting issues, you may like REIGN OF FIRE, but everyone
else might end up feeling like they got their fingers burned
on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Total popcorn movie (don't forget the dragon!)
Review: Reign of Fire is one of those movies that seems to end before you realize you've fully immersed yourself in its world. Directed by the director of the X-files movie, you will find a similarly full developed dark sense of style, oh yeah, and there be dragons!

Overall, I thought this movie was a lot of fun. It wasn't great, by any means, playing like a revamped "Dragonslayer", but the fast pacing and sense of brooding foreboding made this a great popcorn movie for me. The acting was genuine, focusing on the characters of Christian Bale and Matthew Matthew McConaughey, two actors whom I've seen in far worse movies.

Basically, the young Bale wakes up a dragon which in turn brings back the mythical beasts to the world at large, leaving behind a post apocalyptic world in their wake. The director did an excellent job of assembling the right people for the job, particularly in the special effects department. This isn't your daddy's dragon.

As for the feature, it's a solid B movie great for any movie night for action lovers. The extras on the DVD aren't many, but the two that focus on special effects are enlightening for fans of the genre. They include a discussion of the CGI from the programmers/designers, and one by the pyrotechnics expert. The latter I found to be the most enjoyable as you get to see how they do the fire for a major motion picture. It's amazing how controlled such chaos can be.

All in all, it's a touch and go movie. You like it or you don't. Either way, I thought it was a good rental, though I probably wouldn't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: It's a B-movie---but a roaring, fire-breathing B-movie!
Review: Back in the early nineties, NYU college buddies Kevin Peterka and Greg Chabott went backpacking through the United Kingdom; as they hiked, they talked, and Greg had taken along a vintage 1939 typewriter. They used the storied English landscape, with its castles and legends of dragons, to churn out their first screenplay, which was entitled "When Heroes go Down" and which they sold on spec and which was picked up by Spyglass pictures.

Spyglass spiffed up the script and mercifully renamed it "Reign of Fire", but at the core of the movie was Chabott and Peterka's original vision of a fire-breathing dragon doing battle with an Apache gunship. And that, I'm happy to say, is what is at the center of this roaringly fun and occasionally inspired movie about fire-breathing dragons rampaging through the England of 2020.

Yes it's flawed. Yes it's uneven. Yes, the editing on the battles between man and monster is often so bad as to make it hard to follow what's going on. And yes, you desperately want to see more of the dragons. But that said, if you're ready for one of the best B-movies ever made, and you're willing to turn off your brain for a few hours, then you'll have a happy, fire-breathing time.

The movie's promotional campaign, featuring the sky above London's Houses of Parliament teeming with marauding dragons, was a bit misleading: other than a brief introduction by the narrator Quinn (played feverishly well by Christian Bale), the events of the movie are focused on the pitched battle between a gigantic uber-dragon, some frightened English civilians in a Scottish castle, and a band of renegade American soldiers under the command of Van Zan (played by a steely-eyed, cigar smoking Matthew McConaughey, who appears to be having the time of his career), who are there to chew bubble gum and kick dragon butt. Oh, and they're all out of bubble gum.

The reign of fire, and the millions of dragons that come with it, were spawned by the nasty uber-dragon, who came crawling up out of the bowels of London after a development project unearthed his 'final' resting place. The Earth itself is a burned, desolate wasteland, roasted by the dragons and decimated by mankind's last gasp, a futile nuclear strike that did more damage to humanity than it did to the dragons. Society has regressed to the medieval, and merely venturing out for a few turnips can mean death---nasty, screeching, fiery death.

But what's bad for English civilians is great fun for the audience, particularly when Van Zann's dragonslayers (who have tanks and the obligatory Apache gunship) show up. The movie was made for a relatively trifling $117 million, and it's all up on the screen: movie dragons have never looked so terrifying.

Nor has a B-monster movie looked so good, and that's not a surprise: "Reign"'s director of Photography is the brilliant Adrian Biddle, who did the cinematography for Aliens, Princess Bride, Willow, and The Mummy. All of the sequences, particularly the castle, are crisp, harrowing, and beautifully shot.

The DVD is crisp and gorgeous (and stuffed with some useful extras), the setting is bleak and atmospheric, the dragons are gorgeous to behold, director Rob Bowman (who also helmed "X-Files:Fight the Future") keeps the action rolling along, and Matthew McConaughey's death-defying mid-air leap at a dragon must be seen to be believed. If you've got a big bowl of popcorn and a few hours to spare, you could do far worse than to spend the time with "Reign of Fire."

Rating:
Summary: G. Mike's Review Of Reign Of Fire
Review: Reign Of Fire was an okay film. It has everything you would tend to like. It contains action, science fiction, and some dark comedy. I thought it was going to be a great film. It bombed in theaters, but I decided to give it a rent.

It starts off with young Quinn going to London to see his mother. Her mother digs in the ground for some company. She and her group unleash dragons. Her group dies and so does she. Quinn is the only survivor.

Skip Ahead Years Later
Quinn (Bale) and many people live in a castle refuge. They still keep their guard and watch for dragons. After an attack on a few people by the winged beasts, the Americans come to the rescue. They are led by Van Zan (Yes, it's that guy from the Wedding Planner. I don't know how to spell his last name). He decides that the dragons must be fought with. They try everything from air attacks, to ground attacks. Quinn decides that they need to kill the male. There is only one male. All of the other dragons are females, but the male fertilizes all the eggs. Quinn finally realizes where the male is, and the remaining survivors head to London for the final confrontation.

I thought this movie was so-so. First off, "The Wedding Planner" guy looked so ridiculous. He looked like a clown in the battlefield. Secondly, it was a bit boring. The whole movie seems to be the fight between Van Zan and Quinn. It isn't the fight between the humans and the dragons. These things were in and out through the whole film.

All in all though, it was okay. I expected a lot of more action though. It was slow, but did have its moments.

G. Mike