So, it's Mad Max with dragons then? Well, partly. But to use such a cheap
Hollywood pitch is to do it a disservice. This is a thoughtful, sorrowful
film that conveys the true despair among the few survivors of a near future
Earth that has been practically destroyed by dragons. A small band of them
live together in a castle in the north of England and, led by Quinn, they
do what they can just to survive day to day. When some American soldiers
arrive at their camp there is conflict between Quinn and Van Zan, leader of
the soldiers. Van Zan wants to take the fight to the dragons, believing
them to be merely flesh and blood creatures that can be killed if you have
big enough weapons and know how to use them. Quinn just wants to evade
them.
Bale is outstanding in a role that demands more than a typical action man.
As the leader of the rag-tag group of survivors, he is part teacher, part
priest and part protector. Quinn is a haunted man struggling with the
burden of the responsibility placed upon, and Bale portrays this admirably.
McConaughey also does well in the flashier role, turning up the eye rolling
and cigar chomping, while staying just the right side of juicy ham. A lot
of credit must also be given to director Bowman both for raising this above
the average mindless blockbuster, and for getting the tone absolutely
right. Some action films that take themselves as seriously as this end up
po-faced and plodding (the Jack Ryan films come to mind), but Reign of
Fire's earnestness is one of its biggest assets, and lends it a gravitas
sorely lacking in most movies of its type.
Another huge asset is the dragons themselves. Not only are they superbly
realised by the special effects team, but they are in fact genuinely
frightening, highly menacing, and their very presence casts a giant shadow
over the whole film. There aren't many modern movie monsters about which
that can be said. One set-piece involving sky divers jumping out of a
helicopter with dragon sized nets is particularly well done, as they hurtle
through the clouds trying to snare the beasts, knowing one could appear
from the clouds and barbecue them at any second.
It's not without flaws of course : how can there be only one male dragon?
how do they know there's only one? where does all the helicopter fuel come
from? And if it loses momentum and slips into predictability towards the
end it's to be expected, as genre conventions are adhered to and the big
showdown looms. Admittedly, whether you enjoy this or not will depend very
much on what you're looking for from a dragon movie. Grim or fantastical?
Solemn or fun? It's up to you.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
