This was a very long time ago when I watch it for the first time and I didnt much about movies or who the F was Christian Bale so my thoughts were around the line of well this is a fantasy movie about dragons lets see what new and what good can give well I can say that is not a bad movie, directed by Rob Bowman a director that didnt mess around with trying to make this some fairy tale fantasy instead he gave post apocalyptic future, saying future because the movie is from 2002, where dragons took seriously the job of erased all civilization as we know it, in addition is also explaining that dinosaurs were eliminated by dragons instead of the impact of an asteroid. At the moment you watch the movie you can realize that the budget was tight but even thought it got good actors like Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, Bale plays Quinn a leader to his community that is always trying to protect them and also is living with guilt from his past because he think that he was the reason why the first dragon that started all that destruction woke up and at the other side is McConaughey this wild military guy from Kentucky who shows up with tanks and helicopters wanting to take the fight directly to the dragons you probably think that he with his team are crazy for fighting dragons but they just want to bring peace and a new life to the world again
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253556/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
To understand this movie is important to know how everything started, with this kid called Quinn who visits his mother in a mine where she worked, unfortunately that day everything will change the world and why? The reason is that they digging in the wrong place where a dragon was hibernating and at that moment it wokes up burnt everything and Quinn is the only survivor, now in the present he is the leader of a group of survivors living in a castle fortress in norther England and in a world where everything is grey where exist dragon patrolling in the sky hunting humans because now they are the most powerful creatures in the world, with that reality Quinn and his people developed prayers and routines to survive, they use birds as lookouts, they've rigged up water systems to fight fires, its like a medieval community with some modern tech thrown in, Im always thinking that in fact that will be a real future, on the other hand is Van Zan who appeared with his team of dragon hunters bringing military hardware and this philosophy that the only way to deal with the dragon problem is to fight back hard instead of just hiding, he let Quinn knows that they have killed 200 female dragons and now are hunting the male dragon because is the responsable of hatches the dragon eggs so the cycle never ends unfortunately this two men are so different that tension between them is so obvious Quinn with his survival spirit and Van Zan with his aggressive way of living his life, even though this is a movie where you can see that the budget was limited the way how is show this apocalyptic world seems real, the performance is good and the dragons well is not Games of Thrones so don´t expect perfection.
It is amazing when you can see two actors that do not overshadow each other but rather complement each other and manage to give us a good performance that is what Bale and McConaughey do here in Reign of Fire and I mention this because this two actors are in big movies and don´t hesitate to take a role in a minor production and give their 100%, also you can see in this movie other great actor which is Gerard Butler shows up as Quinn's friend Creedy and even though his role is smaller you can see that is giving everything in this role. The chemistry between all these actors makes the human relationships feel real even in the middle of all this dragon chaos, you care about what happens to them, they talk like people who are just trying to survive another day, all in this movie feels real because thats the way the actor manage to provide that message, thats when you realize that a movie is not great for the a big budget and all the CGI on it, a movie is good when it has a good dialogue, good direction, good production and a good cast and this movie is good for all that. The idea of a apocalyptic world but not for the climate change or a world war is fascinating bring a mythological creature to create all that chaos, horror and grief is something different not unique but different.
For the cast and direction they had it is a good movie but it doesn´t mean that is the best movie of all time because is not it has it error like some logic about the story with Van Zan, they come from America and arrived in London and you think how they manage to find fuel when in the world is difficult to plant a tree what a contradiction, they have a tank, an helicopter, motorcycle and you think wao how the cross the ocean, they needed a big ship to do so are more when they mention they have been hunting dragons all over the world, you think wao they probably they are using solar panels in the ship because the fuel is only for the other things but yo know it is a fantasy movie so just don´t think too much about it because at the end it doesn´t bothers me at all, the movie is what it is just for fun, it doesn´t pretende to go into our minds and make us beleive that it could be our future. Something that I really like was how old the dragons look, are not the best dragons that is saw in a movie or a series because if I want great dragons well I watch House of the Dragons obviously those dragons look waay better that the one that appear in this movie but that also doesn´t bother me. A real surprise was the end because Quinn changes his mind from only survive to live fighting against the dragon, I think that it was really the climax of this story, Van Zan trying to defeat the male dragon but spoiler alert he sacrifice to give the opportunity to Quinn to end with that misery world and with the dragons and Quinn complete the mission giving the world a new era, a good one. In deed is a good movie, all the action, the drama, the dragons I believe that is good time well expended.
Its not a secreat Im a fan of series like Games of Thrones and House of the Dragons and many others stories about dragons this is an acceptable story about this magical and fearsome creatures, I know it would not be fair to compare the cinematography between those huge series and this movie but Reign of Fire deliver what it promise including ideas that were unexpected in this movie for example the whole concept of using triangulated positioning to track flying dragons was pretty clever but the way how people jump without parachutes from the helicopter to put a net in that dragon so can´t fly and just fell in the ground was confusing for me but at the end is that they show that will do everything to eliminate all the dragons. The way the movie show how the survivor teach kids about the old world through acting out Star Wars, showing how culture and stories survive even after civilization collapses is always a good feeling plus it gave Christian Bale a chance to claim he invented the whole thing which was genuinely funny. An extra point that I can give to Reign of Fire is the touches they give to the dragons behavior, first that the dragons have trouble seeing during twilight hours, making dusk and dawn the best times to attack them when their vision gets confused also that they eat ash and compete with each other for territory it make them look like any other real animal that do the same, fight for a territory is part also of humans and that lead me to the humans or better says survivors that fight not with magic swords or special powers, no the movie keep the humans as the are just human fighting with what ever they can use against the dragons giving their life trying to give a better life to the next generation. At the end I can say that this story of dragons and survivors is good if you don´t mind the CGI and practical effects use on this movie because remember is from 2002, despite the low ratings online this is a very entertaining movie in my opinion and a cool watch, although I got to confess seen it more than five times since it came out in 2002.
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