Reign of Fire

Rating:
Summary: Total Action Porn
Review: Need a plot? There really is no need for you to watch this film. "Reign of Fire" cashes in on the type of audience that measures film satisfaction in number of explosions per minute and that oh so hip post-apocalyptic feel.

The movie has some great special effects and some interesting camera angles. That's about the best that can be said for it. If one begins watching the film with that sort of thing in mind, there will be no disappointment. The script? Minimal at best. The acting? Feh. Matthew McConaughey is the absolute worst. Horrible. One can't possibly say enough how annoying his character is, and his over-acting makes Mel Gibson's efforts in other films seem subtle and understated by comparison. Christian Bale is just not quite there.

Still, "Reign of Fire" can be a fun film, as long as one expects nothing more than lots of mindless action with little to no point.

Rating:
Summary: Strictly for Sci-Fi/Fantasy addicts!
Review: 'Reign Of Fire' is probably the first in what is likely to be a number of cash-in attempts on a small trilogy known as 'The Lord Of The Rings'. At first it may not seem like it fits that category - it is set in 2020, and in a world that looks suspiciously post-apocalyptic. But it is what caused that apocalypse that places this movie squarely in the fantasy genre - dragons. In a way it is an interesting movie, a sci-fi dragon movie, and it is a combination that a lot of people just didn't seem to handle on its initial release. Faced with the total fantasy of a dragon, the human characters and story were often pulled to pieces for being unrealistic. Ah, that was a dragon swooping by - exactly where is reality in this movie?
What does work, and work incredibly well for 'Reign Of Fire' is the effects. You will believe that dragons exist and are ravaging the world. Some of the effects are jaw-dropping, and this is largely due to the way Bowman, using his years of experience on 'The X-Files', knows to the second and millimetre the exact time and the exact amount to show of his monsters. They are not used too much, but at the same time, they are not hidden right up until the big reveal at the end (which of course usually results in disappointment). Another reason why this is an interesting movie is that it is Bowman's first feature since moving away from 'The X-Files' (for which he directed the movie, and countless episodes), and if this is anything to go by, an extremely capable action director has been found.
'Reign Of Fire' was never going to be anything but a B-movie, a genre-film, a monster movie, and in that regard it succeeds well. With a few more tweaks, and a little less bravado, it could have been a near-perfect action movie, but as is, it is still a very worthy watch for fans of the genre.



Rating:
Summary: Utter Rubbish
Review: The true tragedy is that I paid to watch this film in the cinema - what an unbelievable disapointment. Somebody should blacklist the director for actually managing to put people off going to the cinema. This should have been straight to video or maybe even cable. The only people who like this type of purile drivel are non-science fiction fans. I hate it when films are over-hyped to appeal to true genre fans but when you turn up you get a super-thin plot, bad acting, awful CGI, characters you really don't care about and 20 seconds of action.

Remember, just kill the main dragon and all the others will die too. Its simple. [sound of me puking up...]

Rating:
Summary: You can sit through it, and appreciate it for what it is.
Review: In present-day London, 12-year-old Quinn is the first to discover an enormous fire-breathing monster which inadvertently kills his mother after it wakes an from its centuries-long slumber. Twenty years later, much of the world has been destroyed by the beast and its offspring. Quinn (Christian Bale) is responsible for a small community just outside london in a makeshift castle as they eke out a meager existence. (having no food, drinking only water, and hiding from the dragons). Along comes a bad ass american "Dragon Slayer" and his makeshift crew who says he has a way to kill the all the beasts and save mankind. To be honest, I'm biased because I'm a fan of Christian Bale. He over-acted a bit in this movie, however, so did Matthew McConaughey, who played Van Zan, the hot shot american GI. The Special Effects were bad ass... and I liked how they portrayed the dragons, not too Western style, not too Eastern. My issues however were that they left things hanging. They showed Christian Bale pulling an egg out of the belly of a dead Dragon. What did he do with that? Where did they get fuel? Too many unanswered questions. Go see the movie if you want entertainment but it wont stimulate your mind. Although this isn't Christian Bale's best work, it's fun to watch.

Rating:
Summary: No Fire in These Dragons
Review: "Reign of Fire" is the worst kind of movie. It doesn't have the decency to be bad, just mediocre. You don't leave the theatre discussing how bad it is, you just leave stupefied like you just had a meal from McDonalds. A recent example of this type of film is "King Arthur". The film basically concerns a recent future where a plague of dragons has laid waste to England and a group of survivors led by Christian Bale. A band of American commandoes led by Matthew McConaughey arrives to assist in the dragonslaying. No pun intended, sparks fly between the Brits and these interloping Yanks. This movie is not so much directed but filmed. The actors here don't embarrass themselves but they don't really distinguish themeselves either. Ho-hum, the special effects are adequate. To make matters worse they didn't even bother to obtain the rights to the Johnny Cash song that the title of the movie derives from. Um...never mind.

Rating:
Summary: DRAGONIAN LACK OF PLOT IN A FIRY BORE
Review: Without wasting much time (about 1 minute to be precise) with unnecessary trivialities such as a background about the advent of flying dragons, this noisy post-apocalyptic snore has a near-future London tormented by giant mythic smoke-snorting beasts laying waste to humanity.

We are led to believe that all of them are female, except for that one omnipotent male dragon who single-handely supports the entire beastly race. To be fair, the Jurassic-like fire breathers are well crafted but appear mostly disingenuous through all that soot and noise in the murky night light, which is pretty much the tone of the entire movie. Quick action takes and camera swivels are employed to evoke a frantic Hollywood action mode, but they only add to your migraine.

And if there's anything more stupid than these caricature animals, it's the army that's pulled together to fight them. Our smart humans have discovered a complicated system of dragon fighting that has substantially advanced beyond the time-honoured techniques of a brave heart and a well-aimed sceptre between the beast's shoulder blades. The new strategy involves the best aspects of trick flying, skydiving and dodge ball.

If you're still with me, well done, but Reign of Fire marks the worst variety of over-the-top drivel produced in Hollywood. The lint on my old shirts has higher IQ.

Rating:
Summary: Wasted Opportunity
Review: This is so typical of misleading hype and false advertising. Awesome posters of dragons burning up London, as Apache Copters engage in intense battle with them. Sounds really great, doesn't it? Well, SURPRISE! None of this is to be found in this dreary disappointer.We begin with a suspenseful, promising opening scene where a dragon is accidentally unearthed in a London excavation site, and escapes. So far, so good. Now for the bad news: The director (for whatever moronic reasons) then cuts to '20 Years Later' - after everything that is worth seeing has already happened. WTF??!!Imagine if something like WAR OF THE WORLDS began with the Martians' arrival, then immediately jumps ahead a few years after all the action and suspense has occured. Bet you'd really love that. I can envision furious audiences storming the box office, demanding their money back - and rightfully so. You just don't pull something as deceptively cheesy as that, and expect any loyalty from your disgruntled audience and ex-fans. RoF skips right past the real story of the dragons' assault on the modern world, and their eventual destruction of civilization. Wouldn't that have made a far greater movie than this tepid dreck, which only has fleeting moments of any real action? Imagine spectacular scenes of cities being devastated by armies of dragons, with modern technologies' desperate fight to try to stop them. And when the scientists learn that they caused the dinosaurs' extinction - and a flashback that SHOWS this.With a decent script and right director, a prequel could really deliver. Just keep Roland Emmerich and all his idiocy far away from it.Otherwise, another vapid wasted opportunity that could have really delivered - if anyone had bothered to care.And the budget was $95,000,000. So don't give me that 'not enough money' cop-out. How about a serious prequel? Or am I 'asking too much' from most of the bozos involved in 'film making' today?

Rating:
Summary: B Movie Fun
Review: Reign of Fire isn't as bad as some of the reviews here say it is. The key to enjoying this film is to recognize it for what it is--a B movie. If you see a B movie and expect a great movie, then you'll be let down. You have to be in the right mindset to enjoy it.

Basically, a hibernating dragon is unearthed on modern Earth, and then from that one dragon, the planet becomes overrun by dragons. It's not explained how that one dragon produced enough offspring to destroy the world, but B movies are not about science lectures. Flash forward to the future. Pockets of humanity are scratching out an existance. Most of the world is destroyed. A group of British survivors, are doing everything they can to survive, when one day a group of American dragon hunters happen upon their dwelling. The Americans have a plan to end the dragon threat, but the British are a little cautious of the crazy plan. Will it succeed? Kick back and enjoy this piece of B movie fluff.

Rating:
Summary: No Fire In This Film
Review: Rob Bowman film mixing medieval fantasy with modern apocalyptic theme starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as modern dragon killers.

The spawn of devastating dragons are accidentally released through a mining accident and overwhelm the Earth but you don't get to see that. What you get is a big leap in time after which isolated pockets of humans (Yanks and Brits) reduced to mere subsistence remain to defeat the flying fire-breathing reptiles. The unfortunate thing is that there isn't much to see in the movie at that point: as if the best parts of the movie had also been burned by those elusive dragons. The only thing left to burn is the audience really.

The story is actually unimaginative and more of an assortment of cliches to create a mood which never really stands out. Why would modern humans return to dwelling in castles and medieval customs? Just because their enemy are dragons and both are a product common to medieval lore? Why not live in abandoned subways or underground hideouts such as in the "Terminator"?

The dialogue is also stereotypical and the characters shallow. Freedom loving Yankees competing against their snobish Brit counterparts. The worst part is the story having been so dissected that you don't even know what's going on anymore. After being frustrated with the bad sound mixing and acting, you probably won't even care about understanding the story.

I wouldn't recommend even renting this movie because there isn't much to watch in it except special features on bad film making. Save your money.