Reign Of Fire (2002) | REVIEW

I'm not sure why Reign Of Fire was bombarded by moviegoers and critics alike when it is, in fact, a very good post-apocalyptic vision of the future if said apocalypse were to be caused by fire breathing dragons. I'm going to do all I can to defend this movie because to me it wasn't just entertaining but it was also highly realistic. C'mon, how many movies have you seen over the past decade or so that doesn't feature either annoying talking dragons or annoying talking dragons that are hardly even frightening? Don't give me Dragon Wars aka War Of The Dragons as an example because the CGI in that gig isn't really all that good. Now, on to Reign Of Fire and what you should expect.

During Underground construction in London around the year 2008, a huge, hibernating dragon is discovered and springs to life, instantly incinerating all construction workers with its fiery breath. The only survivor is 12-year-old Quinn Abercromby, whose mother was chief of the construction crew. The dragon escapes, and soon thousands of them work their way through Europe and eventually the rest of the world, burning everything, feeding on the ashes, and multiplying at an exponential rate. 12 years later, in 2020, the adult Quinn (Christian Bale) runs a medieval stone castle in Northumberland, a lonely bastion of mankind, afraid of the sky and the dragons that could attack any time. Their hope is to outlast the dragons, wait until they die out again and go into hibernation. But things are not as easy at they seem and Quinn realizes that he'll have to find a way to battle the beasts instead of having to let his people starve to death due to the depleting food supplies.

Now, isn't that a kickass storyline or what? Screw that Eragon bullsh*t, this is the kind of dragon story I really like to see! Sure, the movie isn't built on a huge budget but the CGI is pretty decent and the entire feel of the movie does a pretty good job at sending a message to the audience about the type of suffering these people are going through. They could be the last remaining people of the human populace for all you know and now even they're in trouble. And you get to sense their fear of the sky and how they're always paranoid about being attacked by the horrid beasts.

When it was released back in 2002, Reign Of Fire didn't boast an all-star cast. In fact, it couldn't boast anything at all because (relatively) the only known name in the film was Matthew McConaughey, and even he isn't considered top-tier material. Just six years after its release, two of the main actors in Reign Of Fire have become pop-culture icons. Christian Bale is one of them, fondly known now as the Batman. And then there's Gerard Butler who is affectionately known as the man who made "This is SPARTA!" into one of the most popular quotes in modern Hollywood history, King Leonidas of the highly-successful 300. Being the dedicated professionals that they are, both Gerard and Christian put up a good performance in Reign Of Fire, making their characters very grounded and believable.

What I like most about Reign Of Fire is the the balanced grittiness of it. From the opening scene right up to its climax, the movie sets a very brood-ish tone that revolves around desperation and depression of mankind in the dying efforts to survive this hellish outbreak. The existence of these dragons are briefly and scientifically explained and there's no mumbo-jumbo about kiddy wizards and silly-looking goblins and kinda-scary prophecies (Not that there's anything completely wrong with any of those, I love sci-fi, but sometimes uniqueness is better). Reign Of Fire is a raw vision of what may come to be if such terrifying creatures were to be unleashed unto the world.

On to my favorite part; the dragons of course! Unlike recent designs that show dragons as decorated animals with blue eyes and shiny horns and even cyan-colored feathers, the wyvern-like beasts we see in Reign Of Fire are a number of times more frightening with their black skin and reptilian movement. They can't talk, they can't communicate with the humans, and no, there are no good dragons that suddenly fly to the rescue of Quinn and his fellow survivors. These are horrific things with minds as sharp as raptors, and senses of sight and sound that surpass any known living animal. I name these dragons the best I've seen on screen and it's scary to even wonder about the possibilities of a species such as this actually coming to life...or even coming back to life.

While it isn't a real problem for me, Reign Of Fire lacks epic-scenery action scenes. We see a few glimpses of London ablaze but that's just about all we see of the full-scale destruction that the dragons can wreak. There are, of course, more scenes with the dragons and humans battling those dragons but there's hardly any wide angles where we get to see exactly what these creatures have done to the world. Unlike what's depicted on the poster, there are no scenes of military war units fighting the dragons or even the dragons swarming in groups and setting cities on fire. That's probably why a lot of people didn't enjoy this flick. I, for one, don't care much about the mentioned downside and like the movie just as it is. Sure, it would have been cool to see said epic battles but think about this; would you rather see a huge battle scene with sh*tty CGI or tactful action scenes with good CGI? Give these guys a break. They worked with $95million and although it may seem like a lot, in Hollywood it's next to nothing in terms of paying for high-end visual effects.

I guess I'm a minority when it comes to my love for this film. It only took in a pitiful $85million at the box-office which is almost $10million short of the budget. Like I said, a pity. I'm not even sure how a poster with firebreathing dragons unleashing hell in central London couldn't pull enough people to see it! Was it the bad marketing? The bad trailer? I know this isn't Titanic by any means but c'mon...nobody went to see this movie?! It was a pretty good movie! It works well as a casual movie, as a serious movie, as a weekend movie or even a good weekday movie, even a damn lazy-day movie! It integrates good acting with a believable storyline and decent visual effects. It sets a continuous, gritty theme from start to finish and is fulfilling and entertaining. What more could you want from a flick? It's weird that stuff like Eragon gets a whopping amount of cash despite using leftovers from the Lord Of The Rings set but movies like these that portray uber-realistic dragons make nothing but peanuts. *Sigh* Anyway, give this thing a chance. Go watch it and I'm sure you'll find it to be a good use of your free time.
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Wrap : Reign Of Fire scores a 3.8 put of 5.0. It would have done way better if a lil' more epic-ness was embedded into it but still, I love the movie the way it is. Good stuff, good stuff.

P.S : It was this movie that made me recognize Christian Bale as an actor with a certain quality to his methods and although I had mixed reactions when I heard the news way back in late 2003 that Bale would play Bruce Wayne in the then-upcoming Batman Begins / Batman 5 / Batman Year One, I knew for sure that he wouldn't make a mess of the role ala George Clooney or Val Kilmer. Val Kilmer? Ugh...!