Reign of Fire

This is one of those B movies with a low critics’ score which will never drop in price or appear in the cheap bin. Another similar movie in this respect is the 13th Warrior. Why? Because they are simply good good fun and will always be in high demand despite not being highbrow fare.

The movie language is in French. I’ve tried selecting for the audio English but nothing happens. Also, tried for English subtitles with no result. Movie looks good but I’m locked out of the story.

Such a great flick. Totally underrated. The scenes with the dragons are just cool. Concept is cool too.

I don't know why so many people give this movie a bad reputation. Good acting, fun story line, and it did have its fair share of funny moments.

Not many movies like this, and critics don't want you to care.

Awesome and different

Better send me a copy!

I've come to notice that movies aren't only reviewed in terms of their quality — i.e. the story, the production, the joy they bring, the pleasure they create — but are often considered vis-a-vis other movies of that season (in this case, years ago). As just another movie-goer, one should ignore all that. You turn it on, you experience it. Pure and personal. This is creates a very believable world. It feels larger and more coherent than movies with muchy bigger sets and budgets. The romance is understated, the humanity is believable, and the action is fun. It's good. Enjoy it.

I don’t know what possessed me to seek this movie out again after not having seen it for many years but I am really glad I did. This movie is a great example of what it takes to survive: a stable community coupled with vision. The double headed coin of Bale and McConaughey - BOTH men of action and deep conviction but with different drivers - is supremely satisfying to watch. This is a good story well told. And it has dragons.

Perhaps it's just my childish weak spot for fire-breathing dragons, but this movie still strikes a chord with me. Granted, I'm not at all a fan of Matthew McConaughey, but the movie does its job being truly exciting and gritty. I can understand some of the negative critiques and I've spotted a few things, myself. Most of them had to do with the fact that the story felt like it was missing a few parts. A perfect example is when Jared and Quinn (Bale) had a small argument after Quinn got into a fight with Van Zan (McConaughey). It felt like the conflict between the two suddenly came out of nowhere without being built up to anywhere in the story and it seemed to end without any real tension. In fact, the Jared character himself didn't really seem like he actually contributed to the story so the entire scene didn't really seem necessary. Another thing that bugged me a little is that Christian Bale often spoke his lines extremely fast. It was almost as if he wanted to speed through his lines as quickly as possible. And granted, there is a lot of peril so it makes sense he'd want to keep things quick, but it can sometimes get a little annoying. There were still a lot of good things about the movie, though. In my case, I've grown so tired of seeing dragons in movies where they were just small parts of stories like ploys in a giant strategy game. This time, though, they were free-willed predatory animals. That idea excited me. It also excited me that they kept the actual fairytale fantasy to a minimum. In fact, it didn’t seem to exist at all. These weren’t magical creatures. They were flesh and blood animals and the rules of real life mortality applied. And for me, that makes the entire thing much more plausible- save for maybe the “one male dragon” idea which seemed to be too close to the alien queen concept from "Aliens" (1986). The dragon designs were also top notch. To this day, they still remain my favorite designs for any dragons I’ve seen anywhere in any other movie, game or artwork. The idea of adapting them to a bat-like design- allowing them to retain four limbs- was genius and much more realistic than featuring reptiles with six limbs- the four legs and two wings. The fiery breath was also made very realistic with the idea of chemicals as opposed to something like the “fire-lung” mentioned in “Dragonheart 2: A New Beginning” (2000). And for once, the dragons’ wings were at a size that could justify lifting such massive animals. In short, I believed these designs. Is this a perfect film? Absolutely not. The editing and screenplay sometimes seem rather sloppy and underdeveloped. But as far as dragon movies go, it’s unique, much more realistic and extremely exciting. It's also fast-paced enough that it doesn't over-stay its welcome. It's a real monster movie. It’s not perfect, but it's definitely worth keeping around.