Rating: 
Summary: Could have been an Epic Trilogy
Review: I thought the story was incredible. A great idea. Here's the problem: They wildly condensed everything into 100 minutes. This is due to "running out of a budget". I left the theater dumbfounded, baffled, thinking to myself "Why?" "How could you flat out ruin an incredible idea?!" The point to all my comments: THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AN EPIC TRILOGY. The lack of dragon footage alone in this movie is dissapointing (a total of 7 whole scenes! Most of these are flashes of dragons flying by the shaking camera.) You can't see 'em clearly! And when they DO show them crawling on land, it's for a measly 3 seconds at a time, leaving you straining to store the image in your mind and make something out of it. One scene at the end has the camera panning through the streets like the male dragon is supposed to be in the frame, but he aint there, oh, he's been cut out by those hackers in the studio for some odd reason. Mconauhey's(sp) character could have lived till the end of the third film. I'll explain later. If you sit there and think, your imagination will go crazy, creating the trilogy in your mind, getting you angry at the producers(who ran out of cashola) of this botched, brilliant idea. Here's the sum up of the great trilogy that could've been: 1)The dragons smothering the planet showing huge scenes of destruction. Like Independence Day, but not New York/some other cities.(focusing primarily on London and USA / Bale and Mconauhey characters) You know, Quinn growing up and becoming a leader. Van Zandt leading his crew in America, deciding to go to London. 2)Van Zandt journey to Europe, then 3 quarters of the actual film we all saw. Ending with the idea of tracking and killing the male dragon. 3)The quest for the male dragon. Killing the male dragon(Mc's character dies here). The ensuing fight for survival with the remaining dragons that still roam the earth, summarized into 40 minutes. Done, there it is. Too bad nothing like this will ever happen. This film froze the idea in time, condensing it into one film, never to be expanded and done correctly.
Rating: 
Summary: HORRIBLE
Review: ...However this movie [stinks]! It's no good at all, even the huge fan of dragons I went with hated it! The movie might have been good with a little more thought...
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining
Review: For those of use who grew up with the wonderment of dragons and other medieval creatures, this is a fun film. I usually walk in as a skeptic of the D&D genre in movies, because it seems the people making the films never had the childhood interest. Of course this is my interpretation of films like Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonslayer and the like. I always give them a chance, even if I end up disappointed. RoF did not disappoint. RoF takes an interesting approach to dragons and holds to it fairly well. The characters are sound actors and lightly developed. the nice thing about the character development is that they maintain it throughout. The two lead men don't end up buddies as seen in many films. They represent the two types of people in our society. Some hide and some fight. I felt like they were having political debates at some points, because they really had differing ideas about how to survive. The film is dark and dreary as should be expected by what the world has come to. The cinematography is good and the visuals are kept under control. They really made sure the dragons were not these pretty and colorful beasts. Some reviewers didn't like the 3D, but I think it is because of the low key graphics. There is only enough 3D to get the job done. The movie doesn't take the easy road of everyone survives either, which is nice. I think that is the saving grace of the film; it is not completely over the top. Dragons have resurfaced in the modern world, which by itself is already over the top. I felt like someone who grew up with mythology made this film. If you haven't seen RoF and you like the genre, you'll enjoy this film. Of course, this is only my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Best looking of the sub-genre
Review: This is one of the better offerings in the 'dragon movie' sub-genre, mainly because of its peerless visual effects and Rob Bowman's kinetic direction. The screenplay is less impressive. While it sets up an original and involving situation and an interesting central character, it doesn't really go anywhere. Despite being a film about the survival (or not) of humanity, it ultimately feels small. The screenplay stalls and reeks of textbook rewriting - a nice subtext dealing with mythology seems to have been excised. But all is forgiven in the action sequences where Bowman's direction, Adrian Biddle's cinematography, and The Secret Lab's visual effects come together with truly astonishing results. (The attempt to capture a dragon using the "archangels" is particularly superb.) With its post-apocalyptic premise and harried bands of battlers, this could easily have strayed into "Waterworld" territory. Fortunately, the constraints of budget or good sense prevented a big star like Costner from ruining it. Instead, they had to make do with the enormously talented Christian Bale and perfectly annoying Matthew McConaughey (don't worry, he's meant to be). The only jarring moment is during the climax when McConaughey's heroics are so obviously and unnecessarily filmed on a soundstage. In a sequence of high anxiety which relies on the realism of seamless special effects, the last thing you want to be reminded of is that this is only a movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of potential... WASTED.
Review: The trailers led me to expect a mighty man-vs-dragon battle of epic proportions. Stupendous effects, a clever premise (the dragon hibernation cycle and raison d'etre), and good British talent, all could have made for a very entertaining piece of film. Instead, I wasted 3/4 of the run time watchin the development of two or three characters. The dragons, and the setting in which they've placed the cast, becomes secondary. I have nothing against character-driven stories, however, this movie failed to convincingly deliver such a story. And the attempt to do so required the sacrifice of a lot of potentially impressive battles. In short, this one delivers the unexpected - in a displeasing fashion.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting, beautifully shot
Review: This film has that classic post-apocalyptic look - very dark, burnt-out, broken battlements, etc. It's a nice mix of fantasy and military SF. Christian Bale is fabulous - you feel a lot of sympathy for his character, but you are also frustrated by his (at first) lack of action to change his situation. This is where the charismatic and fun McConaughey character comes in. Matt's unrecognizable from those wussy love interests he's playing in the past - and that's a good thing. He and Christian Bale make perfect eye-candy, especially in those shirtless combat scenes which is a welcome change for me, as a female, from sitting through action movies where girls always get naked.
The dragons look great, and yeah there are some big plot holes - but I wasn't expecting Shakespeare. This movie was fun to watch, fast-paced and just plain great entertainment.
Rating: 
Summary: awsome movie
Review: I found the movie wonderful. Saw it 4 times at the movies, and would have seen it more if it had stayed longer. It had a moment or two where you questioned the garden field being a long distance away. It had good strong actors and the director knew what he wanted. I rate this a 10.
Rating:
Summary: MORE GOOD THAN BAD
Review: The advertising for this movie gives the impression Reign of Fire is Independance Day with Dragons; actually, it's more a long the lines of The Road Warrior with Dragons, with almost the entire film taking place after the dragons have achieved dominance due to their own ability to breed rapidly and the human race's self-destructive attempt to destroy them with nuclear weapons. Pockets of humans survive here and there, with the movie focusing on a small group living in bleak Northumbria led by the very talented Christian Bale and joined by an American militia led by a pumped up, tatooed, cigar smoking, and shaven headed Mathew McCounaghey (sp?) whose persona seems reminiscent of a Confederate general from the American Civil War. While the deceptive advertising may be disappointing to many (myself included) this is still a fairly decent action flick that's more immaginative than most action films and better acted than just about all of them with Christian Bale and Mathew M. both putting out strong gritty performances. And while you do spend a lot longer waiting for something to happen than you would like, it's still worth seeing, although I doubt many people are going to run out and buy this on DVD. Just a last note: you don't see enough of the dragons, but when you do, the special effects yield the best dragons on film so far.
Rating:
Summary: Dragons very good, characters wierd
Review: This film throws a lot of things at you, which might be part of the problem, but what they do give you is generally very interesting. First of all, it's a dragon film, or at least it's supposed to be. I'll explain. The effects are superb, and when the dragons are on the screen, they are totally convincing. Problem is, I would have preferred that they be on the screen a lot more, and when you take a carload of kids to see it, they get a bit antsy during long stretches when there are no dragons. So what they do when the dragons are not on the screen is give you a world that is a bit reminiscent of "The Road Warrior". Humans have been driven into hiding by the dragons who have taken over the world. Since civilized progress is stunted, you see people making do with the bits and pieces of junk they pick up before happier times. So we get to see all kind of creative costumes and vehicles put together from other peoples junk. Just like "The Road Warrior". This stuff was ok from an adult point of view. Matthew McConaughey is unrecognizable as a totally musclebound warrior. He has a score to settle with the dragons that is not quite made clear, and this distracts from even that adult point. I would have put in more dragon-fighting scenes to keep the kids from squirming as much as they did. Or, if they wanted to be artsy, try to work towards some peace agreement with the creatures. In other words, less "Road Warrior" and more dragons.
Rating:
Summary: Reign of Excitement!
Review: This near-future adventure about dragons taking over the world features appearances by two Star Trek favorites: Alexander Siddig (Dr. Julian Bashir on Deep Space Nine) and Alice Krige (the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact). However, the real stars are Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey. They both make the action believable, even when the plot leaves gaps that dragons could fly through. This movie offers thrills and dazzling special effects, without gore. It's exciting from start to finish. (Duane Simolke's books include The Acorn Stories, Degranon, and New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio.)
| 
