A day late and a dollar short: Cinema Saturday: Reign of Fire

Cinema Saturday Presents: Reign of Fire

Run Time: 1h and 41min
Year: 2002

Rating: PG-13

Movie grade: B

Principle Cast:

Director: Rob Bowman

Writers: Gregg Chabot & Kevin Peterka

Christian Bale : Quinn Abercromby

Matthew McConaughey : Denton Van Zan

Izabella Scorupco : Alex Jensen

Gerard Butler: Creedy

Synopsis: A local mining company awakens a species of dragon-like animals by accident. With no way to stop them the earth is scorched by the dragon-like creatures and it’s now up to those who are left to find a way to survive this burnt earth.

Spoiler free review: if you like dragons this movie has dragons if you like to actually see dragons then this movie has very few dragons. Decent apocalyptic flick as long as you don’t set your standards very high.

Review: What if I told you there exists a movie where batman fights dragons amidst a post-apocalyptic earth? I bet your already furiously typing batman vs. dragons into Google but don’t waste your time scrolling through hundreds of unrelated photos, and one truly mind scarring picture of a joker dragon, the movie you’re looking for is called Reign of Fire and it’s sadly not as epic as it sounds.

Reign of Fire begins with our main hero Quinn as a boy bringing some bad news about his scholarship, which I can only assume was for some kind of Ivy League privet school, to his mom. Quinn’s mother is distracted by a work emergency and leaves young Quinn with a responsible adult who encourages a 10-year-old boy to explore an uncharted and dangerous mining cavern. Quinn, like any 10-year-old boy, eagerly enters the cavern and runs into a dragon nest. The rest of the film follows Quinn and other survivors of as they try and stay alive during a dragon ruled apocalypse eventually teaming up with a group of dragon slaying Americans.

The premise is exciting enough, Dragons awaken in modern day London, humanity driven to the brink of extinction, but something gets lost in translation and the movie just ends up another offering to voracious critics to dismantle and destroy. On the other hand just because the film might not be box office gold doesn’t mean we should undermine its entertainment value, arguably Reign of Fire is more interesting and better put together than some other films in the dragon market, after all, it does take dragons out of the sword and sorcery genera and place them in a more modern setting. Ironically the problem with Reign of Fire is not its cheesiness, it's over the top acting, or even its insatiable quippyness, most of that is rather entertaining in its own ridiculous way. The problem is simply that the movie suffers from an underuse of the film's gimmick, that gimmick being dragons.

The opening of the film hypes you up for a truly apocalyptic tale, you’re expecting to see dragons fill the skies while cities burn to the ground, but instead you’re shown shadowed out glimpses of the unfolding horror. When we finally arrive in the new barren future the world has turned to ash, leaving nothing visually stimulating for what feels like another 20 minutes. But who cares about all that, you came here for dragons and that’s what you really want to know about. Well let’s put it this way When the dragons do show up they look good and they are pleasure to watch, all the sequences with the large Bull dragon are a real treat to be sure, but the screen time is mostly dominated by Christian Bale and his band of misfits bemoaning about how the world is dead.

The truth is the plot doesn’t really start moving until the Americans, led by Matthew McConaughey, show up. McConaughey provides some much needed human conflict to the story as his character Denton and Bales character Quinn have very different views about how to deal with the dragon problem. McConaughey and bales performances, as well as the rest of the cast, are hammed up but enjoyable making the tensioned exchanges between Denton and Quill the most entertaining thing in the film, aside from the dragons of course.

The acting is hammy, the plotting is simple and there may not be nearly enough dragons but Reign of fire is still a fun modern B movie with plenty of antics and cheesiness to keep B-movie lovers more than satisfied and keep’s the film from becoming as lifeless as the ash burnt landscape that surrounds them.

Fast facts:

. The film was shot on location in Ireland

. The film crew needed to gain special permission to film on location since Irland had a major

breakout of foot and mouth disease at the time

. The dragons in the film are a combination of many different animals.

. Arnold Schwarzenegger was orginally rumored to have a role in the film.

Quotes:

1^st Line: “hello Quinn!” ~ random construction worker

Last line: “well here’s to evolution” ~ spoken by

Denton Van Zan : “ Edens not burning its burnt”

Creedy: "Only one thing worse than a dragon... Americans."

Quinn Abercromby: Anything happens, you know what to do.

Creedy: Uh no. I have no idea.

Quinn Abercromby: Me neither.

Denton Van Zan: You see they have great vision during the day, and even better vision at night. But in the failing light, they can't focus. Magic hour.

Denton Van Zan: Envy the country that has heroes, huh? I say pity the country that needs them.

Mini-commentary:

. I always knew there was a clear link between birds and dragons. Pigeons have been in bed with dragons for years and now we have proof! (1:20)

. Ok, that’s like the 5^th quip I’ve heard in under five minutes: (3:34)

. Are you kidding me with this? Go inside and have a look? Glad we have such responsible adult’s here (5:16)

. It’s unsafe? That’s why you sent a 10-year-old kid down there? What on earth is wrong with you? (6:57)

.You know it would have been nice to actually see the apocalypse instead of letter writing and stock footage. 9

.Painfully Obvious Product Placement for Star Wars: (14 min)

. What? Dragon prayers? this is ceartinly the last thing I expceted to see in this movie. (15:27)

.That a good point! If these things are as ravenous as were led to believe how come they don’t eat each other? (26:24)

. So what’s the first thing the American does? Take a sip from a flask, is that a stereotype? I feel stereotyped. (30:39)

.You know, for all that bragging this doesn’t seem to be going all that well. (44:42)

.This is really not going well. They may want to rethink that whole mighty dragon slayers thing. (47:48)

.All problems are settled through fisticuffs and pro wrestling (59 min in)

. And… there we go, the official “You’re not my real dad” moment every whiny teenager has. (1: 1: 02)

. A dragon attacking a castle, I see what you did there ... well-played movie. ( 1:1:12)

. So did that door just close all by itself? I'll just assume it's the pressure of the dragon flame pushing the door closed and not a movie mistake. (1:15:15)

. Ahhh more Quips, I was starting to wonder why no one commented on the 666 earlier (1:21:00)

. That answers the cannibal questions but not why there are still so many. (1:21: 38)

. hahaha! I wonder if McConaughey tastes like chicken. (1:31:00)

. Ok so kill one bull and they all disappear? movie logic 1:36