| Product: |
Reign Of Fire (DVD) |
| Date: |
15/07/08 (140 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Something quirky
Disadvantages: Plot light
For some reason I liked this movie. Even with its simplistic Playstaion plot of good guys kill dragons and the portent of yet another grim dystopia wasteland to come as a pixel background for yet another grim metaphor for death on screen, its still feels something different and original. What a quirky idea of Dragons taking over the world, feeding of the ash of all living things to survive, the remaining humans rustling around in fear amongst the smoldering remains scavenging for food.Thats some barbeque.
The casting of Christian Bale as the hero is great fun as he does have certain intense screen presence and enjoys tackling the more interesting movie, whilst putting him up against antihero Mathew Mahogany was equally abstract. The two actors are miles apart in ability and delivery yet they some how make for joyous bedfellows in this frivolous grown up fantasy romp.
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Quinn Abercromby: What do we do when we are awake?
The Children: Keep two eyes on the sky.
Quinn Abercromby: What do we do when we sleep?
The Children: Keep one eye on the sky.
Quinn Abercromby: What do we do when we see them?
The Children: Dig hard, dig deep, go for shelter, and never look back.
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-The Plot-
The terror begins in present day London, a drilling team for a new underground tunnel hitting a mysterious void, the flame that erupts out of the cavern anything but natural gas. The Canary in the cage is well and trolley barbequed. Little Quinn (Ben Thorton) is down in the works visiting his engineer mom after school, and the something that has been awoken has been sleeping a very long time and is in grumpy mood because of the noise.
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Construction Worker #1: Quinn! What are you doing down in the arsehole of the world?
Young Quinn: Well you're passing through it. What does that make you?
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We then flash forward to 2030 in gothic Northumberland (really County Wicklow in Ireland...), little Quinn all grown up and the leader of a compound full of embattled humans holding out against the relentless dragons. The world has long since been ravaged by the no longer mythical beasts, the remaining gaggle of humans living a hand to mouth existence around the world as they cower and hunch their shoulders and necks to the mighty beasts that arrogantly swoop around the skies torching all human and animal flesh. They live on ash and it's running out.
The settlement is functioning well and hope for mankind, keeping its head down and off the dragon radar in the rain sodden hills, until, that is, self styled dragon slayer, cigar chewing Colonel Van Zan (Mathew Mahogany) shows up with his mercenary army, a US Cavalry crew reservist from Kansas, somehow ending up in northern England with his tanks and helicopter to take the fight to the dragons.
Quinn reluctantly lets the team into the compound for food and water, but soon regrets that call when Van Zands bolshi crazy talk turns heads (the plot going the way of Stargate did when Kurt Russell turns up with a crew cut and a nuke), especially agitating Quinn's number two in Creedy (Gerard Butler), causing ructions and murmurings amongst the homestead. Van Zan wants to take the fight to the Dragons and he needs volunteers, the epicenter of the action being London. Because there's token totty in Alex Jensen (Izabella Scorupco) on board Van Zans crew the boy seen keen. But how do you beat such a fearsome enemy?
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Denton Van Zan 'Dragon Slayer': We're going to London.
Quinn Abercromby: Good luck. It's that way!
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-The Cast-
Christian Bale ... Quinn Abercromby
Matthew McConaughey ... Denton Van Zan
Izabella Scorupco ... Alex Jensen
Gerard Butler ... Creedy
Scott Moutter ... Jared Wilke
David Kennedy ... Eddie Stax
Alexander Siddig ... Ajay
Ned Dennehy ... Barlow
Rory Keenan ... Devon
Randall Carlton ... Burke (Tito)
Ben Thornton ... Young Quinn
-The Conclusions-
Although the Imdb punters seem to hate this, I really got into it for some reason. I loved its grim smoldering visual appeal and Armageddon edge and enjoyed the director's boldness in transferring a mythical fairy tale to contemporary England. Rob Bowman isn't shy with his not so hidden political 'digs' in the subtext either and some of the more observant film fans quickly pick on that in the films visual message, definitely a comment or two on the state of America foreign policy, none more so than the ambush by the dragons of Van Zan and his team from above in a dead end, which Bowman owns up to that bias in the audio commentary. These directors and actors are just like you and me with their views and what better place to have them. I'm not saying the Dragons are really the US Air force or anything but there is references here. Moving modern American warfare to England's green and pleasant land is kind of surreal, perfected later on in Children of Men, of course.
The film also has some fun dialogue, of which I have liberally sprayed around my review. I think I have already mentioned the way Bale gives 100% to all his movies and I hear Batman is doing amazing business on the opening week in America. Here he bounces of Mathew McConaughey like leather on willow, Bale regularly smashing the atrocious American actor to the boundary. But bad acting and chest bumping aside if you go into this film with an open mind and your tongue-in-cheek and want to be entertained with something different then you will get enough from it. The dragon special effects are superb and if you loved the abstract clash of films like the Knights Tale with the pop music then I think you will get this. Let's be honest, if man made global warming is real as the rain crashes down on our windows then why not Dragons lurking somewhere warm for when the rain does finally stop...
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RuN-TiME 101 minutes
Imdb.com scores it 5.6 out of 10.0 (25,632 votes)
Audio Commentary option on the setup by director Rob Bowman
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Denton Van Zan 'Dragon Slayer': Ever see a male?
Quinn Abercromby: When I'm running for my life I generally don't look back at the plumbing.
Summary: St George is back!
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