Reign of Fire - Movie Review

For some reason I was expecting Reign of Fire to be a disappointment to me... probably because I knew dragons were depicted as evil in this movie, while my own schema holds dragons as the protectors and watchers of humanity. My expectation was wrong! I completely loved this movie, with one exception: Matthew McConaughey. But I'll get to that...

Reign of Fire is about letting sleeping dragons lie, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup. While mining the depths in London, a cavern is discovered. Being the only one small enough to fit through the opening, young Quinn goes in to explore and encounters a thing from fairy tales: A huge fire-breathing, and very hungry, male dragon. The story continues with Quinn as an adult leading a retinue of refugees, trying to keep them safe from the hordes of dragons. The world has been all but destroyed in the ensuing years.

Christian Bale (American Psycho, Laurel Canyon) plays the grown-up Quinn. This was a great character, played very well by Bale. Having seen the big daddy of them all up close and personal, Quinn has a healthy fear of the dragons. Bale plays the strong leader with the right amount of conviction mixed with a believable amount of almost-cowardice.

Matthew McConaughey is Denton Van Zan, a military dragon hunter who shows up and turns the colony on their ear. Now, I adore McConaughey..and it really should be to his credit that if I hadn't already known it was him, I'd have not recognized him in this role. That should speak to his versatility as an actor. Why doesn't it? Because I'm shallow and I wanted the McConaughey I know and love from The Wedding Planner. Sue me. I'm almost thinkin' they should have switched the roles of Quinn and Van Zan... but I'm not sure Bale coulda pulled off the tough guy as well as McConaughey did. Guess that's why I'm not a casting director, eh?

Izabella Scorupco (Vertical Limit) is Alex Jensen, part of Van Zan's rag-tag army of dragon slayers..and Quinn's love interest. Scorupco is pretty as hell, but it doesn't end there. I totally bought in to her character. Tough, scared, determined... yet with a soft side rarely shown.

Rob Bowman directed this 2002 movie. I've always liked Bowman's work, from the X-Files movie and various episodes to the Dark Shadows series. Bowman's directorial biography is amazing. I mean we're talking Quantum Leap, Alien Nation and a whole slew of other highly recognizable credits. The man lives and breathes fantasy/Sci-fi. This particular endeavor was no less inspired than his previous work.

DVD
* Length is 101 minutes

*Featurette: "Breathing's Life into Terror"

*Pyrotechnics featurette "If you can't stand the Heat"

*Conversations with director Rob Bowman

*Original Trailer

*French track, Spanish subtitles

Rated PG-13 for intense action violence. Watch it, judge for yourself. I'd personally have no problem with kids watching this. It is, after all, a tale of triumphing over great odds.

I whole-heartedly recommend this movie to just about everybody. If you like dragons, sci-fi, fantasy, or just plain action.. you will like this. The special effects were great, I loved (and totally bought) the dragons. The entire cast did extremely well, even the kids. Reign of Fire is running about $20 everywhere right now, so you may want to wait until the price drops... not me, it sits proudly on my fantasy DVD shelf now.