Extras:
2 Featurettes, Conversations with the Director, Theatrical Trailer.
Director:
Rob Bowman
Screenplay:
Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg
Cast:
Quinn: Christian Bale
Van Zan: Matthew McConaughey
Alex: Izabella Scorupco
Creedy: Gerard Butler
Moutter: Jared Wilke
Alvarez: Benny Nieves
It almost seems as if B-movies are on the comeback.Eight Legged Freaks
came out of nowhere at the theaters, 5 days after Reign of Fire
premiered.
Now anyone can tell you that these type movies enjoy moderate
success at best and sometimes find a better home at... well home. But
then there's the B-movies which dissapear quickly and gain quite the bad
reputation (judging by Eight Legged Freaks' DVD sales this will likely
happen to it). Ambitious enough as Reign of Fire is, I think the latter will
occur. Most will go in expecting an all out dragon-bashing frenzy. They
will be sorely disappointed - I know I was after seeing it at the
theater, but DVD is notoriously known for second chances, now knowing
what to expect and not to expect will heighten the overall effect on you
or bore you to tears depending on what type of filmgoer you are.
The year is 2022 (contrary to the trailers claiming the year is 2084)
and a mine in London contains a horrible secret... no it's not another
Austin Powers movie but it's actually dragons. Didn't expect that one
did you, with the fire being in the title, huh (how can you with Matthew
McConaughey's bald melon overshadowing the dragon on the cover)? The
ancient creatures of yore multiply into millions and scorch the Earth. It
is discovered that they were the cause of the dino extinction and they
were lieing dormant, waiting to be unleashed upon a new fertile world.
Cool so far, right? Most definitely. But suddenly the film takes a nose
dive, not in quality, but in tone. A community of survivors led by Quinn
(who we discover was the young boy from the opening who saw the first
dragon) dwells in a large guarded castle. Suddenly a group of rag-tag (I
hate that saying) American soldiers arrive at the castle gates led by
Van Zan (which has to be McConaughey's best role, seriously). Seems they
have an idea to take down the lone male of the species in London but
they need the community's help.
When the dragons are on screen it's all out awesome. The CGI effects are
among the best I've seen for a low budget flick. Don't worry about it
being CGI, these look good. The actors aren't overshadowed though as
all give a suprisingly good performance. There's something about
McConaughey's performance as Van Zan that adds to the film, maybe
because he's hilarious.
Reign of Fire works well as a post-apocalyptic film which are pretty
rare anymore but not as an action movie as the ads lead. Going in you
will either love it or hate it. My only complaint is the obvious, needs
more dragons. A good movie with only a few flaws.
When looking at Reign of Fire for the first time you'll notice how dark
and dreary it is. Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen. The film
is all about the ash overtone left by the dragons giving it a grey clear
look. Blacks are a mix, sometimes they're solid but sometimes
pixelization can be seen. Flesh tones and other colors are represented
well, especially the fire. But there's just something unattractive about
this transfer that I don't remember at the theater. Color moire can also
be bothersome particularily in the eyes of actors. Overall the transfer
is just average, nothing here is going to rock your world.
The sound improves on the video though. Buena Vista offers both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and a very agressive DTS 5.1 track. Sound on both is
excellent.
As always with Buena Vista the extras are meaningless. If they're going
to make us pay $29.98 for a film give us something extra. I love the ads
I've recently seen for this DVD which tout loaded with extras, yeah
right. Here's how it stacks up:
Breathing Life Into The Terror:
Right off the bat we're subjected to
the SAME theatrical trailer that is selectable already. After the
trailer you get 6 minutes of info how the dragons were created. Not bad
but should have been more in depth as it feels rushed and slapped
together.
If You Can't Stand the Heat:
Explains how the fire was created and contained. Pretty worthless but it somehow
gets 14 minutes over the only 6 minute long dragon featurette.
Conversations with Rob Bowman:
The only decent feature here. 11 minutes, features an interview with director
Rob Bowman over the film and his stints on The X-Files.
Original Theatrical Trailer:
A very deceiving trailer but still cool. Presented in non-anamorphic widescreen.
The trailer touts that the film takes place in 2084.
Pretty lacklustre and leaves more to be desired. Deleted scenes, audio
commentary?
Packaging is amaray and features one of the worst posters ever created
for home video. Buena Vista has a knack for putting cast photos on the
covers (see the Scream series, Phantoms, the soon to be released Signs,
and all their other movies) and overshadowing what the film is really
about. In this case the dragons are overshadowed.
The theatrical poster
was very well done, if not deceiving. Remember on my review of
Big Trouble
where I hoped their low chapter count wouldn't become a trend?
It has. Big Trouble had 12 and this only has 11. Not as bad as
The Powerpuff Girls Movie's
8 but this is ridiculous. The list just keeps
going on. Every DVD from Buena Vista (except the special and Vista
editions) features a solid grey disc art with words in silver. Very
boring. Buena Vista still doesn't convince me that they take the DVD
market that seriously.
Overall, Reign of Fire is clearly a movie you have to be in the mood
for. It's post-apocalyptic tone will have you either engrossed or bored
to tears. The DVD is pretty dissapointing in some areas but the movie is
at least worth a rental.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
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
