Reign of Fire

[DavidCPA]

I believe this movie got lambasted on this board earlier this year, but it looks like it may be a good special effects, action flick. Has anyone seen an advance screening (if this type of movies gets on of those, that is)?

-DavidCPA

[Union Carbide]

Hey, Reign of Fire. . . FASA called and they want their Shadowrun references back.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I hate "punny" names. And this title just made my eyes roll.

Still, Rob Bowman is a pretty good director (he helmed most of the best X-Files episodes)....

But it has Matthew McConnehegh (sic).

Still, it's getting good reviews...

I'll probably see it.

Just wish they gave it a better name.

[James Galimo]

My roommate wants me to go see this. Normally, I'm all about dragons, but I hate post-apocolyptic settings. Too damn depressing. Didn't care much for the Mad Max series. Didn't play any of the Fallouts. I pretty much avoid anything that has anything to do with aftermath of nuclear wars. I guess I'll be ill-prepared should the nukes drop, and I miraculously survive.

[balut]

I'm gonna go see this, if anything than to cleanse my mental palate of "Dragonheart".

- Balut

[Brad Grenz]

The apocalypse this movie is set post isn't nuclear. It does look pretty bad, I'll probably hit a matinee.

[hido]

From NYT:

Fire-Breathing Dragons Make It Hot for Humans
By ELVIS MITCHELL


The thought a picture like "Reign of Fire" provokes is that all of the wit the movie has may have been expended in its title. But for much of its running time, "Fire" is loads of fun. It has a jamming B-picture buzz — the kind of swift filmmaking and high spirits that have been missing from movies for a while.

The picture starts in contemporary London, when Quinn (Ben Thornton), a little boy who is visiting the construction site supervised by his mother (Alice Krige), crawls into an underground space that looks part catacomb and part bowel. Then he sees it: a dragon explodes from the depths, and the movie takes on a fairy-tale horror.

This opening scene has the impact of parts of "Bambi," and years later — in 2020, where the rest of the action takes place and dragons have taken over the world — the adult Quinn (Christian Bale) still has haunted, red-rimmed eyes. The red comes from guilt — he fears he may have let the genie out of the bottle — and lack of sleep.

Quinn is the daddy figure of a hideaway community, tucked deep inside a castle in Northumberton. He and a friend, the affable, open-faced Creedy (Gerard Butler), help keep the families safe. But when one of the real fathers, Eddie (David Kennedy), tries to steal away with his family, a dragon roars out of the thick, gray skies and pursues them. Quinn and his group, clothed in heavy-duty firefighter gear, try to effect a rescue.

Afterward, Quinn can't be angry — if he had kids, and not much of a future apparent from living in a fetid, overcrowded place, he might run off with them, too. But the battle has left the cautious Quinn and his charges shaken. So when the combative Yank, Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), arrives with tanks and his squad, Creedy mutters, "Only one thing worse than a dragon: Americans."

Van Zan and his band, who believe they can confront the dragons head-on and destroy them, seek to recruit Quinn's people in their cause. This poses a challenge to Quinn, who hopes that he can evade the monsters by waiting until they die out.

"Fire," which feels like a nightmare version of "Dungeons and Dragons," has a quick, horror-movie punch. It turns out that Van Zan is the worst possible Ugly American archetype. With his shaved head, tumbleweed beard clinging to his jaw and appliqué tattoos, he looks as if he's starring in a rough-trade prison musical. An action figure right out of the box, he's a literal and self-proclaimed dragon slayer who uses the unlighted cigar jammed into his mouth as the world's biggest tobacco chaw. And the gleam in his eye, evidence of his determination to bring down the dragons that "live on death" — the fire-breathing beasts consume ash — makes Van Zan a blood brother to Quint, the laughably obsessed Great White Hunter played by Robert Shaw in "Jaws."

So hyper-masculine he bounces into each shot with his legs wide open, Van Zan is such a macho cartoon that even Major League baseball would test him for steroids. And Mr. McConaughey's gift for extremes serves him well: he scores best as either laid-back trailer trash in movies like "Dazed and Confused" or here as a good ol' boy Ahab.

When Quinn's people celebrate after Van Zan's troop has taken down a dragon, the coiled, surly Van Zan will have none of it. "We might just get somewhere in about 320 years," he snarls about the numbers still ahead, contemptuous of Quinn's more patient tactics. It probably takes all the restraint Van Zan's low-key helicopter pilot Alex (Izabella Scorupco) can muster to keep from rolling her eyes at his bluster.

There are enough genre-picture pleasures to make us think that "Reign of Fire," which opens today nationwide, isn't a fluke. There's a sweet moment in which Quinn and Creedy stage a play that's lifted right out of "The Empire Strikes Back," and the audience of very young children is wide-eyed with shock and happiness. (When one of the kids asks if he made the story up, the smiling Quinn responds, "Yes." It's part humble joke and a minor poke at copyright infringement.)

The solid cast, including Scott James Moutter as Jared, the boy Quinn has taken in, works hard. The cherries atop the sundae are Mr. McConaughey's baleful zealotry and Mr. Bale's haunted decency. The director, Rob Bowman, displays the nimble hand that made him an ace on a score of television pilots before he moved in to handle many "X Files" episodes and the feature film version of the series. (He's fortunate to have a team on "Fire" that includes the production designer Wolf Kroeger and Ridley Scott's cinematographer Adrian Biddle; their England is thick with heavy, ashen clouds.)

The movie is ingratiating and loose — mythology on the run — for a good spell. The final fight against the original dragon, who has spawned all the others, has to take place in London, where Quinn hasn't returned since he first spotted the scaly terrors. But for all its sprightly touches, the picture finally runs out of notions. We're worn down by its failure of imagination, too — the post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" future and the undistinguished computer graphic imagery that makes many of the early dragons look the same, like extras in a video game.

I presume that most of the special-effects budget was saved for the last, giant dragon, which has beat-up wings; it's endured many a skirmish. So much has been lifted from other sources — the desolation looks borrowed from "Terminator 2" — that you want the movie to take on a life of its own and make use of the British setting, home of the dragon myth.

But not enough is made of the ultimate battle in London; it could be anywhere. (And it's too bad that in this thin version of London all that's left of the human race is whiter than the demographic for melodramas on the WB channel.) The movie might have been a minor classic if it had maximized its own possibilities. But until the rush wears off, the picture is as much fun as a great run at a slot machine: even when your luck runs out, you're losing only pocket change.

[Murph]

Hmmm...

Interesting.

Well, I think that I want to see that movie, honestly. Looks kinda cool.

But, then, I didn't hate Dungeons and Dragons, so maybe I have low standards.

[hido]

I'd hold that thought about going to see this one, NYT notwithstanding. It's getting some of the worst reviews I've seen since "Battlefield Earth".

[Bub, Andrew]

"With his shaved head, tumbleweed beard clinging to his jaw and appliqué tattoos, he looks as if he's starring in a rough-trade prison musical. An action figure right out of the box, he's a literal and self-proclaimed dragon slayer who uses the unlighted cigar jammed into his mouth as the world's biggest tobacco chaw."

Nice!

[Erik]

From Andrew O'Hehir's vicious pan on Salon:

McConaughey and Bale spend a lot of time snorting and mouth-breathing and standing chest-to-chest staring each other down and generally acting like they're about to go seriously gay all over each other.

[Matthew Gallant]

Is McConaughey holding bongos?

[mtkafka]

"McConaughey and Bale spend a lot of time snorting and mouth-breathing and standing chest-to-chest staring each other down and generally acting like they're about to go seriously gay all over each other."

Sounds like Top Gun with Dragons! Isn't Tom Cruise gay?

etc

[Anonymous]

Shhhh... don't say that aloud...

Ugh, now you did it. Tom Cruise's lawyers are now going to be all over Quarter To Three like White on Rice.

That said, I'm having second doubts about this movie as well.

[Dave Long]

I'm going tonight...will report back tomorrow.

--Dave

[Jim F.]

Ack, did you just imply that Rondell White and Jerry Rice are gay? Now we're in trouble.

I'm seeing Reign of Fire tonight. Oddly enough, it's my wife who is dragging me to see it. In my mind, there hasn't been a good Man vs. Supernatural Beast movie since Dragonslayer. Legend, Dragonheart (yes, I know the dragon was a "good guy"), Dungeons & Dragons, and many others since Dragonslayer have been giant piles of ass. I figured Reign of Fire was just another ass on the pile, and it still might be, but when the wife says Go, I go (being as I still owe her for making her go to AoTC. She'll never let me live it down).

I'll let you know later tonight what I think of the film. I'm going in expecting cheesy B-movie, but who knows.

[Dave Long]

Hmmm...that's kinda strange because my wife is the one who decided what we're seeing too. We don't get to too many movies, but she's a big fantasy fan and this one has her pretty excited. Considering there are likely better options and she definitely is aware of them, I was surprised that this was her first choice...

--Dave

[Doug Erickson]

My wife loves B-grade science fiction, and was so worried about my reaction to RoF after my snotty critiqueof Minority Report (which she loved, my tastes in cinema are decidedly Tom Chick-esque minus the Fight Club fetish) that she was planning to bug a couple of my friends to take her. Feeling a bit shame-faced, I agreed to go and "play nice" - no snarky comments about Matthew McConnaghey's absent acting ability ot gags about CG rendering flaws.

Who's the bigger geek now, I wonder?

[Anonymous]

It's been years since I've seen Dragonslayer, and I generally had fond thoughts of the movie... until I realized just who played the hero. Then it makes no absolute sense anymore.

Yup, that's right. Peter MacNicol, better known as "The Biscuit" on Ally McBeal and Alan "The Eel" Birch on Chicago Hope. I guess those later rolls have colored my mental image of Peter MacNicol, cause there's no way I'd ever associate him with the guy in Dragonslayer.

[Bub, Andrew]

He was also probably the best thing about Ghostbusters 2 as well. But I like it when people affect untraceable vaguely Eastern European accents for comedy.

Dragonslayer really needs the DVD treatment.
Oh, and Sparky should like this I think, I just learned that Them! is coming on DVD in August. I can hear that 'ree-ree-ree' sound effect now.

[Dean]

Let me get this straight-- Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey strut around barechested and act gay.

Everyone's wives want to go see this flick because they're "big B-movie fans". It has nothing to do with aforementioned barechested heartthrobs acting gay in a macho way.

No mention of any women being in the movie.

And dragons have taken over the world, but Apache helicopters and F-16 with radar guided missiles are useless againts their fire breath. (Do they have BVR fire breath?)

Prediction: Elves save everyone at the last minute. Everyone lives happily ever after in gay elf-land (aka post apocalyptic London).

[routlaw]

Despite my best efforts to persuade my friends to see an open-air showing of 'The Man Who Wasn't There' at the local art museum, it looks like I'm going to be roped into seeing this (probably terrible) movie this evening.

At least we're going to the bar first-maybe having *just enough* firewater in me will make it bearable. Emphasis on the maybe.

N.B.-I'm a big fan of cheesy science fiction and fantasy movies as well, but only when that science fiction and fantasy don't carry the pretension that they're anything more than cheesy science-fiction and fantasy. Much like people, movies that take themselves more seriously than they really are truly are unbearable to watch.

[Doug Erickson]

Let me get this straight-- Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey strut around barechested and act gay.

Everyone's wives want to go see this flick because they're "big B-movie fans". It has nothing to do with aforementioned barechested heartthrobs acting gay in a macho way.


Dean, I think you nailed it. My wife did admit that the only reason she wanted to see "Red Planet" (and forced me to suffer through it) was Val Kilmer.

[Anonymous]

"Sounds like Top Gun with Dragons! Isn't Tom Cruise gay?"

I saw that! Everyone in this thread can expect a subpoena shortly.

Oh, and go see Minority Report. Ciao.

[Sparky]

Oh, and Sparky should like this I think, I just learned that Them! is coming on DVD in August.

Yup! And there's that "Eight Legged Freaks" giant-spider movie coming, too. It's a big year for big monsters.

As for Reign of Fire, ech. Setting your film in a post-apocalyptic world may save you money on sets and extras, but the joy of monster movies is knocking down stuff. Good stuff. Knocking down abandoned ruins in a city where only a few dozen people still live? Add in Matthew McConaughey and it's a recipe for a delicious Sparky Ain't Seein' That No Way No How Casserole, with a crisp and flaky Ritz Cracker crust. Serves six.

[balut]

Caught a 4 PM matinee showing today of Reign of Fire. Interesting premise, BIIIIIIG dragons, some semi-eerie little touches in the movie - a Time magazine cover showing a blasted city with the headline, "The End?" sparks memories of 9/11, as well as flashes of newspaper clippings lamenting how the dragons overwhelmed the firepower of humanity.






*********SOME HINTED SPOILERS FOLLOW*******************


A lot of logic holes, but if you can ignore those, a fun action flick. The dragons are pretty menacing, although there aren't enough of them shown, and the movie has some nice touches in its portrayal of post-dragon-apocalyptic life. Isabella Scorupco seems slightly too "fresh" for the gritty movie world, but acceptable eye-candy. A bit disappointing in the "expendable-ness" of the supporting cast, though.


*****************END SPOILER SECTION******************










I'd give it a 7.5/10.

- Balut

[Anonymous]

"A bit disappointing in the 'expendable-ness' of the supporting cast, though."

SPOILER FUCKING ALERT!

[Desslock]

>a Time magazine cover showing a blasted city with the headline, "The End?" sparks memories of 9/11, as well as flashes of newspaper clippings lamenting how the dragons overwhelmed the firepower of humanity

That Time magazine cover was easily the best thing about the movie.

Yep, it's a terrible movie, but features some good CG dragons (and some bad CG effects as well), and the first mathew M. performance I've ever liked, because it's so over the top crazy. That axe scene (also in the trailer) is laugh-out-loud funny, mainly in a good way. Because there should be more movies with big monsters eating things, everyone should see it.

Way more entertaining than Minority Report, blech.

Stefan

[Dave Long]

I really enjoyed it. Matthew McConaughey's character is cool. In fact, all the characters are cool. McConaughey's performance is great. As noted above, there's a few holes in the plot, but they're not enough to take away the fun. It was $7.50 well spent.

The final "blast" was very well executed. In fact, the CG overall is some of the best I've seen IMO. My wife noted on the way out that it's one of the few movies she's seen where you really can't tell. There's some good cinematography too. Lots of great closeups of the actors. Once again, that's a big strength for McConaughey who is barely recognizable with the shaved head and goatee. Most of the time, the film is deadly serious but there's a couple great nods to the over the top nature of it all.

This is one movie I'd say will look much better on the big screen than on DVD. If you wait, it's going to lose a lot of the excitement because huge dragons are better than letterboxed dragons.

--Dave

[DavidCPA]

I was hoping the Reign of Fire wouldn't be as bad as some people expected and it appears that it is not.

-DavidCPA

[Anonymous]

I thought it was very enjoyable for a summer flick. Anyone else thought McConaughey was attempting to channel Kurtz?

[Desslock]

>In fact, the CG overall is some of the best I've seen IMO

I agree - I was surprised at how amazing some of the CG looked -- the dragons looked "gritty", had weight, fit in with their environment, etc. There's some less polished scenes, but the better stuff is at least as good as anything in the Jurassic Park series.

Stefan

[Anonymous]

It's hard to believe it was all done on an Amiga running a beta version of Video Toaster.

[Aszurom]

Just saw it about an hour ago. For a B-movie, I'd give it a hearty 4/5 stars.

I didn't really understand the whole "they eat ash" ecosystem there, but whatever works, eh?

Also, I see plenty of potential for a sequel if they'd want to do one... considering that the female dragons probably don't just give birth to other females exclusively. I'd think that they also birth males, but Mr. Daddy Dragon makes sure to eat them when they hatch out. Of course, he couldn't scour the whole globe looking, so I'd be certain a male survived somewhere.

I was also stunned - happily - that they didn't end the movie with our hero patting the very pregnant belly of his new wife or whatever. I was so expecting that scene and was happy when it wasn't delivered.

[Desslock]

> didn't really understand the whole "they eat ash" ecosystem there

I thought that line was meant as a metaphor. They certainly ate living things.

[balut]

I thought they also could literally "eat ash". It would explain their penchant for toasting things to ashy smudges so quickly, rather than taking the time to eat the whole bodies.

- Balut

[Jim F.]

A little late on posting my opinions on the flick, hehe.

I really enjoyed the film. Caught the 5:20 showing with my wife, so we managed to only spend $18 including tickets and refreshments. Well worth the price.

It was classic B-movie goodness combined with amazing CG. There was a surprising amount of effort put into making you sympathize with the main characters, especially considering hte B-movie roots.

There were many holes, of course, like how did the Americans flying a single 2 engine plane manage to bring over a whole column of armor? But if you don't ask those kidns of questions, it's a really fun movie and easy to get into.

*** Spoilers ***

As to the comment earlier about "So F-16s with guided missiles can't stop them", the reason is because there were literally millions of them. As they say in the prolgue, you kill 1 and 30 took their place. As long as they have food, they churn out eggs, which is why Christian Bale's character has the bright idea to dig in and let them die off and go back into hibernation now that they had exhausted their food source.

What I really wanted to see is a successful Archangel attack on a dragon. We saw a failed attempt at it, but no clue as to what a proper one is like.

[Chris]

What I really wanted to see is a successful Archangel attack on a dragon. We saw a failed attempt at it, but no clue as to what a proper one is like.

During this scene I was actually expecting them to be successful just to fail at a critical point later on, which is typically how it's done in movies these days.
I really enjoyed the CG but thought the movie didn't take full advantage of it's premise. I would have preferred it if they would have shown the battle between our civilization and the dragons and how that played out instead of what they focused on.

[Dave Long]

I would have preferred it if they would have shown the battle between our civilization and the dragons and how that played out instead of what they focused on.

If they had tried to do that, we probably never would have seen this movie. That would have put the budget in the stratosphere. I'm glad it got made and I really enjoyed it. I can't say it's "forgotten" since I went on Friday. The note about the Archangels failing was just one plot point I thought was handled well. Everytime I thought I had it figured out as to how they'd confront the big baddie, they threw in a twist.

As I said in my first post... the final big bang was really well done too. That was the icing on a pretty tasty cake.

I'm a sucker for survival movies though. I love films that pit man against beast with man on the verge of extinction. BTW...I'm surprised no one mentioned the Star Wars scene... that was pretty clever.

--Dave

[Desslock]

>We saw a failed attempt at it, but no clue as to what a proper one is like.

?? Sure we do -- the dragon falls to the ground because of the nets, where it is spiked or blown up while it's a sitting duck.

[Anonymous]

Well, we know in general what happens to it, but I would have liked to've seen it.

[Anonymous]

Enjoyed it a lot myself, although I thought the dragon's effectivness aganist modern weaponary was pretty inconsistently depicted.......

[Mark Asher]

Were there any Puff the Magic Dragon jokes in the movie? "If only we could smoke those giant lizards the way we puff this magic dragon, dude, we'd be set. [inhales] Here ya go."

C'mon, I've seen the promos. The future looks like shit. I'd be lighting up.

[Anonymous]

Just saw it...

The one thing that kept coming to mind for some reason was Waterworld. In that case, why spend $140 million if you're gonna make a movie that looks like shit intentionally? In other words, the entire post-apocalyptic thing gets old fast.

So Reign of Fire gets a tepid, lukewarm reaction from me. It just didn't light any kind of emotional fire (pun intended).

Too many logic holes too...

So where do they get the fuel, lubrication, and other spare parts to keep that chopper, the tank, etc, going?

So if the dragons eat ash, why does the big dragon snatching smaller dragons out of midair?

So, where does Isabela find all that makeup when there are no more Mary Kay ladies around?

Why bother having Dr. Bashir in your movie if he's gonna say like 2 lines before getting killed. Poor Alexander Siddig, you just can't break out.

Why the hell is the friggin over-the-top Wagnerian music (which is always a crutch in movies to make up for lack of suspense) SO FRIGGIN LOUD? They could have toned down the volume from 11. Seriously, if you're trying to shake people up, do it with effective filmmaking, not low frequency bass vibrations.

Ack, glad I paid matinee.

[Jim F.]

It's like every other B movie; If you apply logic to it, it's going to suck. It's the same thing with the Spiderman movie. If you question it, you ruin the whole fun of the movie. (reviews for "Eight Legged Freaks" are going to vary madly for this very same reason).

Some movies are just meant to be fun. It's a lot like riding a roller coaster. If you sit back and enjoy it, it's a great thrill. If you spend the whole ride wondering why that last turn wasn't a little sharper, why the drop wasn't a little longer, and trying to figure out the formula for the amount of gravity being exerted on your body through the whole ride, you're probably not going to enjoy yourself.

[Anonymous]

But that's just it... even ignoring the logic holes this movie just wasn't that much fun. I've seen this movie before a dozen different times, just with a different actors and some different special effects.

The attempts at humor fell flat.

The action sequences just weren't that great.

I instantly knew who was going to die and who was going to live.

Ho-hum.

[Jim F.]

Well, yeah, I can agree with those points. It's not a movie I would pay to see a second time, but I don't regret my first purchase.

As for the "who lives, who dies" thing, 2 people lived that I expected to die, and 1 died that I expected to live.

Then again, with the obvious Moby Dick parallel, I shouldn't have been surprised.

[Dave Long]

Man...you folks overanalyze films like this. Just go and enjoy it. Don't worry about who's going to die, what parallels the movie has with others and whether or not that CG was done with an Amiga or a PC.

Any science fiction/fantasy will have its problems surviving real-world scrutiny. That's why it's called science FICTION.

--Dave

[Jason Becker]

I'm with the "Just enjoy it for the cheesy summer B-movie that it is". If your going to think think so much about the logic problems and such your wasting your time with a movie like this.

The Dragons looked cool. The best looking since the Dragonslayer.

[Bub, Andrew]

Man...you folks overanalyze films like this. Any science fiction/fantasy will have its problems surviving real-world scrutiny. That's why it's called science FICTION.

Wait a minute? You're saying you're not supposed to overanalyze a film because it is fiction?

[Dirt]

Not too bad of a movie though the ending was weak. I think I would have preferred a bigger ending. I'm still wondering where he got the horse to ride from London back to the castle though.

[Kyle Wilson]

Man...you folks overanalyze films like this.

The problem with the movie was that it gave me time to overanalyze it. I (I'm ashamed to admit) enjoyed Independence Day, because it was just big goofy fun and there was always something going on. Likewise Lake Placid, the big dumb alligator movie. But in Reign of Fire, when I should have been thinking, "Who cares, look at all the friggin' dragons!" instead I was suffering through bad dialog between Christian Bale and Isabella Scorupco. That left me with way to much time to think.

[DavidCPA]

Rented this flick and saw it last night. Very good for a non-A list film. My only complaint is that the ending was too short. The final showdown is only the last 15 minutes of the film. Almost seems like they ran out of money or something.

-DavidCPA

[Menzo]

Watched this on the plane the other day. One question: How does the single daddy dragon fertalize all the eggs around the world? All he seems to do is hang out in London.

I thought it was ok - I got it free so I guess it was worth what I paid.

[Matthew Gallant]

Watched this on the plane the other day. One question: How does the single daddy dragon fertalize all the eggs around the world? All he seems to do is hang out in London.

Peristalsis.