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HugeReviews.com Reviews:
Death From Above, Just the Way I Like It: Reign
of Fire
by Christian De Matteo
Super
I was absolutely thrilled to see previews for a film about
dragons. For so long, in Hollywood's limited imagination, dragons
have been creatures solely for medieval and/or fantasy fare, and never
belonged anywhere else. But why? What fantastic and
terrifying creatures the are, surely fit for so much more than just two
genres!
But there was still the possibility that the film could stink, that the studio didn't really have faith in the project and only sunk
enough money into it to make a full-fledged, half ass job.
Goodness knows, they do that enough.
I am happily here to report that that thankfully wasn't the
case. Reign of Fire is a well thought out, well plotted,
dramatic film, with some excellent action. You'll note I didn't
say "action film with some excellent drama." Not at
all. Reign gives us a society of survivors, very few- mind
you- in a world where ancient dragons have been reawakened and
destroyed... well, everything. The humans that still live have
been reduced to almost medieval lifestyles, grouping together in
compounds fortified against dragon attack. The earth has been scorched
by not only dragons, but also the vain attempts of man and his weapons
(all of them) to stop them. This is not some shallow/fun, sci-fi
plot designed to make you gawk at the special effects and exciting
killings. You will feel for these people and their plight.
(And you will gawk at the superbly subtle and perfect special effects
and killings. The dragons are astounding and almost
underused. Truly, they are used just enough to keep them
terrifying.)
One of the factors that keeps the film at that level, beside a well
written script with only a few burps and hiccups of silly lines (much
less than you'd expect for this type of film), is the acting. I
remember saying to a friend that Christian Bale (American Psycho)
and Matthew McConaughey (Contact) were odd action movie
choices. Well they are. And they're dramatic acting ability
does wonders for the film. Bale does an excellent English accent
through the entire film, without a single moment of faltering in it,
even in the most intense of scenes. So wonderfully English was he,
that I didn't understand certain lines! Perfect. And the
intensity of emotion and depth of feeling he brings is tremendous.
I hope Hollywood notices his ability and also the fact that adventure
films can be dramatic. Those two things I hope they take from this
film.
McConaughey plays the Captain Ahab of the film. An American
military man, desperate to take back his planet from the stranglehold of
the dragons who now practically run it. He is obsessed, sometimes
blindly with destroying them, and will risk anything to do so. The
clash between Bale's safety first/dig in and hide/protect his people at
all costs mentality and McConaughey's almost suicidal desire to survive
is fantastic. Never are these two characters the cardboard cutout
drivel we are so used to from Hollywood action/adventures. These
are the characters of legend and literature.
Director Rob Bowman of The X-Files fame (both small and big
screen) and writers Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Grenberg
all deserve applause for this rarest of films. A deep, dramatic and
exciting, nail-biting tale of men and dragons filled with all the pain
and drama you could imagine if this were to really happen.
DVD Prediction: There are two moments in
the film where I felt deleted scenes coming on. Now, I rarely
notice these things in finished films, but there were spots where I felt
something missing. For one, I imagine the ending was cut down a
bit. Maybe for blood (the film is PG-13), maybe for time, but the
ending is kind of abrupt, not badly, just like you feel there was
more. And another scene seems to be missing, because I spent five
minutes trying to figure out what had happened. Neither of this
things really hurt the film, but I am willing to bet there will be
directors cut DVD release, maybe even unrated.
DVD Prediction Update: Well, so far, so
wrong... but a director's cut may still be forthcoming. The
current DVD has some interesting documentaries on it and some
interesting background info, but is for the most part bereft of any
groundbreaking features, not even a running commentary gracing it.
Lord knows, we've learned that one release does not a final run make, so
there may be a two-discer in the future in the flick finds a following.
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