Any movie which contains dragons as one of its main themes is basically guaranteed to put my bum in a seat somewhere – whether it be at the cinema or on the TV, if it has dragons, I’m going to watch it. Such folly led me to suicidal tendencies after the trauma caused by watching Dungeons & Dragons on the big screen, and multiple showers to wash off the filthy after-effects. Such folly also led me to rent Reign of Fire, the allure of the supernatural beings was simply too much to resist.

The story is derivatively simple. A young Quinn goes down a railway construction shaft in London to tell his mum bad news about his education, and in doing so unwittingly wakes up Father Dragon – the genesis of the dragon species and the nemesis of all mankind. The dragon, after a millennial snooze, goes on a rampage, somehow managing to produce untold progeny and the unleashed dragons rain havoc upon the world – and all of humanity’s greatest weapons do nought but aid the fire-breathing creatures, since they thrive on destruction and in particular, the ash and soot brought by nuclear holocaust.

This occurs in the year 2000 – fast forward 20 years and Quinn the Elder (Christian Bale) is the leader of a small community in Northumberland, England (just in case you weren’t sure), fighting for survival amidst smoking ruins and a desolate landscape, always on the lookout for the dragon marauders that come in to destroy their crops and buildings, and feed off the ash that remains. All is hopeless as they struggle to hold off against single dragons – all their weapons and manpower has little effect on the beasts.

Now, being an American film, you would expect Americans to be involved at some point. After all, those silly Poms hold sway for about the first half hour, and the American audience would be getting worried. Not to fear, though. American guidance soon arrives in the form of the deranged Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey, producing more ham than your average pig farm), a loudmouthed, tattoed zealot who arrives firm in the belief that he has all the answers. He brings with him an attack chopper, numerous tanks, and lots of dour, humourless Americans. And, of course, an attractive, token female character – the pilot of the chopper, Alex Jensen (Izabella Scorupco looking pouty).

Immediately, the burly Van Zan and tough Quinn get off on the wrong foot, and stay firmly that way until the conclusion. Stay tuned for inspirational rhetoric, wrestling matches, and humourless Americans. If you’re a foreigner, resist the temptation to throw something mushy at the screen after a particularly provocative speech about heroes by Van Zan – I found it rather galling, and really had no place in the movie. Most of their interaction involves yelling at each other, squinting at each other, and a lot of cross-cultural tension (i.e the Brits don’t really like the Yanks and Yanks couldn’t give a rats’ arse)

Van Zan brings with him not only a crapload of artillery and technological dooverlackies, but an unmatched confidence in bringing down the dragonkin. The Americans, you see, have perfected a technique for bringing down and killing the dragons – and it’s all very gung ho and interesting. This confidence has its downfall, however – Van Zan wants men to go to London to take down the bull dragon, the one that Quinn disturbed. This very bravado will prove to be an undoing.

The subtexts contained within the movie seem somewhat obvious – set in a destroyed Britain, the British on the back foot and seemingly out of ideas and almost out of hope. Then, the heroic Americans arrive, put some noses out of joint, and proceed to run the show in the hopes of a dashing victory. The World War allegory is not carried to its conclusion, as you will see, but it is nonetheless there, intentionally or not.

The stars of the show, obviously, are the dragons. This in itself is a problem, because despite the movie being centred around them and the attempts to kill them off, they’re more of a distant threat than the constant menace they are portrayed to be, and for some reason, they only ever attack singly. You’d think that, if they’re as intelligent as they’re supposed to be, they’d attack in a mob, take no risks and wipe out the rest of the resistance. But seeing as this is a good versus evil tale, one cannot let logic get in the way of predictability.

Speaking of logic, there remains one question that is essentially unanswered in the movie – where the hell did they all come from? We are to believe that there is but one male dragon out of millions, and that all the rest are mummy dragons, which doesn’t quite explain how the big dragon produces all of these buggers. This is a major quibble, because it essentially means that only the bull needs to die, and the dragons are unable to spawn without him. There will be still millions left, but once he dies, they all go and hide in caves and cower at the might of humanity. Apparently.

As to how they look, well, the few glimpses you get of them are quite impressive – and I particularly liked how they portrayed their aerial agility, and the sort of awe that they might inspire. The fire-breathing in particular was pretty spectacular, but you don’t see enough of them to actually get a feel for the creatures, how they think and so on. They are simply large critters that must die.

There is one thing I noticed though, and it is something I constantly notice with CGI, and that is that there seems to be a problem with perspective. The bull dragon is most pertinently the object here – when he attacks the English compound and roosts on top of their fortifications, he appears much larger than the building itself. But when Quinn and Alex bring the dragon to ground, it looks about a quarter of the size. When the bull swoops past Quinn when he is hiding, it feels a good tenth of the size. I don’t know if its possible to bring consistency to CGI objects, but I would like to see it. Call me a nitpicker, go ahead!

In the end, you simply have to leave your thinking apparatus in a jar and take the movie for what it is – an apocalyptic tale that makes no sense but is good fun to watch. McConaughey absolutely owns the screen in a totally over the top portrayal, chewing cigar stubs, grunting a lot and grimacing all over the place, relegating Christian Bale to eye candy status, though he does a solid job as the disheartened leader, and I much preferred his cockney to McConaughey’s irritating drawl that sometimes required subtitles, such was his mumbling. My mate also noted something quite amusing – it seemed that Bale and McConaughey were having a contest to see who could bare their chest the most. I’m not too sure who won, but it was a close call.

Reign of Fire is a stupid, yet somehow enjoyable flick. I have to recommend it to those who are of a fantastical bent – but annoying after an intelligent movie and a good script will need to look elsewhere. This is garden variety Hollywood – explosions, rhetoric, heroism, pseudo-scientific jargon, and cool-but-empty CGI.




Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older