Rish's Reviews
When a London boy uncovers a sleeping dragon, it means the end of life as we know it on this planet. The trailer claims the dragons go from "one to a million in less than a year," but the movie makes no such claim. Regardless, man is no longer the dominant species on Earth, relegated to hiding and scraping out a meager existence in constant fear. The boy has grown up and become the leader of one such pocket of survivors (he's also become Christian Bale). Enter Matthew McConaughey as an American mercenary who leads a group of dragonslayers and has a plan to return the balance of Earth life in our favour.
And that's basically the story of Reign of Fire, a large scale action flick by the producer of Jaws and Rob Bowman, the director of The X-Files movie. In fact, the beginning of this film and that one are really quite similar. Action flick, did I say? Well, aside from the fact that it received few Skulls, and aside from the fact that it had dragons and guns instead of ghosts, giant mutated maggots, and knives, and aside from the fact that Touchstone would deny it, Reign of Fire was a horror film.
I loved the premise of the movie, and for the most part, how it was executed. The dragon effects are quite great. The huge, fast-moving creatures are scary and formidable, and we never root for them. A couple of the shots, even though they were depicting a horrible creature and immense destruction, were amazingly beautiful, like old Hildebrandt paintings for Tolkien calendars.
The audience applauded a couple of times, and that's always good. And there were times when it came close to being great. But I must admit that some of it feels a bit silly. McConagaghgaughey's baldheaded character is so much bluster and pomp, that some may laugh at his campiness. I didn't, however, as the circumstances surrounding him were so grim. This is one of those films that could fit on tyranist's all apocalyptic website and this one, and it's a film tyranist is destined to like more than me.
From time to time, the movie is AWESOME. Other times, things feel rushed, forced, or truncated, all to the detriment of the overall film. It felt like a novel adapted for film, with long chunks of plot condensed or missing. I'm certain it was whittled down to what was considered a more manageable running time. We lost subplots, motivation, relationship development, and exposition. In fact, the ending of the film feels like the end of a multi-night epic miniseries, summing up what has happened, a lot of which we didn't even see! That's sad, but since I'm sure tyranist will buy it, I'll be able to watch the extended director's cut DVD when it comes out.
I'd Recommend It To: Action-Horror fans who don't need huge stars to carry a film.
Note: I saw it opening night, and the sound went off on us a bit into the movie. The projectionist fixed it, but a few minutes later, the sync went out, and lines of dialogue could be heard before the characters opened their mouths. Finally that was fixed, amid screams of rage from the audience. As we filed out of the theater after the movie, the employees handed out free lollipops to reward us for not asking for our money back. Weird.
Note 2: Another thing that bothered me: the movie poster depicts a scene that never happens in the movie. That may have been a common practice years ago (and in comic books), but it shouldn't be allowed today. Somebody should be doing time for that.
"What are you in for?" "I ate my sister's kid." "Ah. I designed the one-sheet for Reign of Fire." "What? The one showing the dragons torching London and helicopters fighting them?" "Yup." "I think we're gonna have ourselves a little accident…"

The tyranist's thoughts
I was sure that this was horror from the first time I saw the trailer in spite of the fact that they were trying really hard to get the action audience. I even convinced a bunch of people who almost never see horror movies to go to this one with me. Some of them liked it ("Heh-heh, they blew shit up.") and some of them didn't ("How many plot holes can you put into a movie anyway?"). I had a great time regardless.
I've been into dragons for a long time, science fiction even longer. Put the two together and you ought to be able to come up with something that I could gush about for hours. Have Rob Bowman direct it and maybe, just maybe, you'll find me on the floor in my own special little fit of geek epilepsy. Too bad they couldn't pull it off, huh?
The movie really felt incomplete with major jumps in the plot and a pure devotion to burning everything in sight once the dragons started showing up that was a little disturbing. I swear that from the moment the first dragon shows up at the castle, there is like one five minute stretch that doesn't feature a dragon burning something. I'm sorry, but the interesting part of post-apocalyptic movies is how the people react to their situation, not how the world got destroyed in the first place.
While I enjoyed myself at the theatre, the movie doesn't stand up to much thought afterwards. So if you just want to see a movie where they burn stuff up, this is the one to see. You will be entertained and have a great time. On the other hand, if you are looking for a little more thought-provoking movie, maybe you should go see EightLegged Freaks.
Note: Rish saw this one before I did and so had the honour of assigning Skulls for the movie. For the first time ever, I felt like he really missed one (or two in this case) and have added them. I have added two Skulls for "Little kid lamely survives." I'm going to explain, but let me point out that this requires spoiling one of the few plot elements in the movie so you should probably skip forward and just read the Skulls if that bothers you. Okay. The part of the movie when the big-ass male dragon attacks the castle and breathes holy hell all the way through it, did anyone else notice that only three adults and like fifty kids made it to the cellar? What were all the rest of the adults doing while the kids were running past them to the cellar? I mean, come on, am I to believe that none of these kids slept anywhere near their parents. "Hey, Mom, the castle is burning and it's kind of hot. I'm going for a stroll to the cellar." "Right, sweetheart. I'm just going to catch a little more shut-eye." "See ya." Thus, in my not-so-humble opinion, this deserves not one, but two Skulls. I've seen a more realistic "Little kid lamely survives" in the Home Alone movies.