Rating: Summary: Reign of Dud! Review: Why do people like to watch films like Independence Day, Deep Impact, etc.? They want to see cities destroyed and the process of its destruction -- which are what Reign of Fire lacks. The movie's posters and other ads are deceptive. Don't expect to see the dragons actually destroying cities, terrorizing its citizens. The story's main setting is in England, but you'll only get to see the skyline of an already destroyed London. Boring, boring, boring!
Rating: Summary: Five-year-olds have better imaginations Review: I predict this film will one day become one of those "so-bad-its-good" movies. Thirty years from now audiences will enjoy watching just to count the number of plot holes and idiotic inconsistancies, laughing they're heads off. The first dumb idea to kill the suspension of disbelief is the realization that the nations of the world, equiped wiith air-to-air heat-seeking missles mounted on supersonic jet fighters, couldn't kill a bunch of slow-flying reptiles. But, miraculously, twenty years later, after the world is burned to ciders, a handfull of humans bring down dragons from a single helicopter using skydivers carrying - get this - nets! Later on the dragonslayers get even more retro and go after the head dragon with - get this - crossbows and arrows! Give me a break. This would have been a much better movie had it been a typical knight vs. dragon film. The futuristic stuff is silly. Someone please stop Rob Bowman before he directs again!
Rating: Summary: A fizzle... Review: When I saw the previews for this I was interested. It takes something on the order of a "Lord of The Rings" movie to get me to the theatre so my wife and I waited until Reign of Fire was released on DVD before seeing it. Good thing, too. If I had shelled out theatre admission prices I'd have been truly disappointed. To describe how poorly made this film is would waste your time almost as much as actually viewing it would be. Avoid at all costs. If you're in the mood for a Dragon film, just pull out your copy of "Dragonslayer" and watch it again. You would be better served by that vastly better film. You still have your old VHS or laser disc copy, yes?
Rating: Summary: Dont let the hype fool you... Poor sci fi flick, Review: The title says it all but, I'll elaborate. I expected to see a flick with a premise similar to Independence Day involving our advanced technology versus a mysterious unknown power such as what these dragons presented. Instead the directors of this film decided to show us a damp dreary post apocolyptic environment of an english community hiding from these dragons until confronted by a bunch of American Rough necks headed by Mathew M. who try to convince them to fight against this foe. How stupid is this movie you ask?, well if the dragons whiped out our civilization by overcomming our missle, bomb, and nuke capabilities , then how is it that a less potent projectile such as a harpoon or arrow is able to kill these things?. Thats where this movie misses its mark by not answering those questions but, vaguely describing that topic through a narration done by Christian Biel (lead character). Another issue I had with this film was its little use of the special effects. We saw more self pitty drama of these english folks bickering with the americans conerning the logic to fight the dragons rather then viewing the battle scenes involving a hoard of dragons using their extraordianary powers against our ground and air defenses as advertized on this films promotion billboards. Rather, the battle sequences were limited to fighting one dragon at a time (two dragons total throughout the whole movie) although in fairness, the battle scenese were done well. In conclusion I can't believe this movie made it into the Theatres and its a good thing I rented it on DVD as opposed to shelling out 10 bucks to waste my time. This movie looked more like a made for TV flick..
Rating: Summary: Never gets off the ground Review: I will say that the film had a pretty cool concept. What if Dragons were real...and they were brought back to life? But the film didn't really deliver this. "Reign of Fire" is pretty much about people trying to survive in a post-holocaust world - they could've picked Dragons, nuclear war, you name it - it wasn't really about the dragons, which was disappointing. Having watched the film, there really isn't any good reason I can think of to tell you to watch it. The CGI effects are okay, but I'm assuming you've seen Jurassic Park and aren't low-brained enough to want to see a movie for the effects only. The story is pretty trite and the characters and dialogue are jaded to the nth degree. Christian Bale is the reluctant hero who never quite gets it together, and Matthew McConaughey is the unbelievable nut-job-wild-eyed army guy, complete with the stubby cigar cliché. The problem with the characters is that we never really know who the protagonist is supposed to be. Bale is a wussy, McConaughey is a psycho - right up until the end. You can't really latch on to a hero in this one. Part of that problem is the plot, which suffers greatly from the short length of the movie. When you're trying to convey the discovery of dragons, the destruction of the world, the establishment of a new society, and the final victory over the dragons, you need more than an hour and half to do it with any kind of depth. The story felt rushed and overall I felt as though I had just watched a part of a movie, rather than an entire film. While better than say, The Mummy, this film suffers from the recent Hollywood notion that special effects and fire are enough to draw people in to see a film. So they get a concept - dragons in this case - crap out a screenplay and spend 2 years on the props, believing that people will pay 8 bucks to see a flying dragon. If they want to know why the movie industry is failing, look no further.
Rating: Summary: Fun to watch, but leave your logic at the door Review: If you are a hard-core fantasy fan, you should watch this movie. However, be aware that while the movie has its good points, it also has plot holes that you will have to disregard. This movie is essentially a B-movie which relies strongly on its special effects. The DVD has a couple of extras well worth watching that shows how some of the numerous special effects were accomplished. I was very fascinated by how the fire effects were created and combined with the digital dragons. The dragons themselves I found to be quite believable. For example, the big male dragon had holes in his wings, which you could believe would happen during fights, landings, mating, etc. The acting is surprisingly good as well. Though the lead actors did some pretty dumb things, a characteristic of many movies of this type, their reactions were reasonably plausible and appropriately self-serving in a post apocalyptic world. There were a few things that were partially explained and left more confusion than clarity in this movie. There was mention of nuclear attacks against the dragons, with the statement that the attacks failed without giving a reason why. I'm guessing the reason was that the dragons were already too wide spread and breeding too quickly, but that wasn't explained. Another thing that was confusing was how the numerous and over-armed militaries of the world were unable to put up a better fight. Given that most larger militaries are heavily equipped with anti-armor weaponry which should have been more than capable of killing a dragon, there should have been a better fight, particularly in the early days of the fight when there would have been few dragons. The most disturbing lack of plausibility was that there was only one male dragon. For anyone that knows anything about reptiles and amphibians, you know that it is known for some animals to change sex if there is a shortage. Since nature is quite wonderful at finding alternative paths, I have to believe that there is provision for replacement of the male dragon that would not involve the male dragon, given that he would not know in advance that he needed to be replaced. Having one male dragon was another plot weakness that perhaps is to be exploited for a potential sequel. In spite of the flaws in the plot, I still enjoyed the movie for the action. I would definitely watch it again, and think that any fan of dragon movies would find this one to be worthy of watching and owning. Just don't forget to leave logic at the door.
Rating: Summary: Dont be fooled by the box art Review: If you think that this a big battle movie featuring lots of dragons, big explosions, and war in devestated London, think again. Reign of Fire is nothing more than a textbook example of wasted potental. Instead of gigantic battles, we get a few confrentations of people running away in terror and hiding in castles. the problems start almost imediatly. A young boy, who smokes and drinks, judging by his dialog walks into a mining operation and desceneds into a tunnel under construction (How come nobody bothered to make sure he was wearing a helmet?) there, he awakens a evil dragon (Opps), has his mom killed (Shoot) and triggers what is basically the end of the world (Aw nuts!) During a very brief sequence, we hear a man writting a letter to his son explaning that the dragons killed off the dinosaurs and have waited for the world to rebuild itself so they can eat. They breed very fast and after about 50 years, the remnants of humanity live in poorly constructed castles, leaving crops to grow in the open and trying to survive. At this point, the film still has potentional, but that is quickly tarnished as you realize that the movie is nothing more than a bunch of people winning about dragons and trying to survive a dull script. The Actors in the film try hard with what they have to work with, and come off with only marginal results. The best actor is probably the American, (I forgot his name) Who loves carrying a big Axe around, and act gung ho. Quinn is ok, but dosent do anything special. Everybody else is basically spare meat, with no real exceptions (Except for the girl) The highlight of the film is of course, the dragons, so how do they come off? Pretty well actually, although we never really see enough of them (Usually ony 1 at a time) The effects are quite good on some of the sequences (Especially during the final confrentation), and at other times quite bad. The main problem with the movie is that is stays in the same place for 80% of of the film, so we dont see much of the ruined world. London, which provides the finalie, dosent look anything like what we would all like, with mostly burned out buildings and empty ruins. Also, how come there is never any big final battle between Humanity and the dragons at night in a blazing london like on the box?!?!? Instead, we get 3 people taking on a singe big dragon in broad daylight( Another thing, the American says that the dragons cant see well at dusk, so how come the humans attack during the day?) Overall, Reign of fire is a big dissapointment, and should be renamed Reign of Boredom The good: The final confrentation is moderatly exciting The Americans final scene in London is hysterical good dragon effects The bad: Mediocre actiong Film takes place in one place 80% of the movie very little in the way of action The ugly: NO BIG BATTLE LIKE ON THE BOX!!!! misleading box art Summary: you should probably just stick with reading about dragons
Rating: Summary: Even one star is too high for this turkey! Review: I'll watch almost any kind of sci-fi or fantasy type movie, but Reign of Fire was a total waste of time. Little plot/character development, cheap effects...the dragons should have been flying turkeys, because that's what this movie was!
Rating: Summary: Don't look back, just dig deep and dig hard. Review: A great movie, Dragon Slayer meats the 2002. Well writen and casted even better. A devine intervention of Godzilla, Puff, Elliot and a very bad attitude in the mix. I recomend you to atleast watch it once, I think and am sure that you will atleast enjoy it the first time around.
Rating: Summary: Lots of dragon action, little plot to follow. Review: Reign of Fire starts off well, with a scene that pays nice homage to another british apocalyptic thriller, Quatermass and the Pit. Then it stumbles, glossing over the end of the world and getting to humankind's Last Stand. Rob Bowman creates some nice X-Files style atmosphere and some rousing action scenes, but there is precious little story to hold it all together. Not that one watches movies like this for the story, we want dragons blowing fire and humans kicking dragon tail. On that level the movie delivers the goods. Matthew McConaughey makes for a nice pseudo-Quint dragonslayer, but Christian Bale, with his shaggy hair and beard and constant looked of pained shock, too closely resembled James Brolin in The Amityville Horror for me to loose myself in the simple story. Nice for a rental, but nothing worth owning.
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