Subject: Review: Reign of Fire (2002)

From: Jon Popick <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 19:06:16 -0000

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After a summer full of heady films that made us think (thank you, Jason 
Bourne, Michael Sullivan and John Anderton), we finally get the first real 
popcorn movie of the season in Reign of Fire, a moderately entertaining if 
not downright odd blend of Mad Max, Dragonslayer and Excalibur.  It's good 
enough to make viewers a lot less leery of the whole Post-Apocalyptic Future 
genre after The Postman, but in the grand scheme of things, there isn't much 
here that will have you talking on the way out of the theatre. 

Fire opens in present-day London, where the young son of a railway tunnel 
construction manager finds a hare-brained, fahr-breathin' eedjit (read: 
dragon) deep below the surface of the city.  The story slowly flashes 
forward to 2020, during which we're treated to a very spiffy voice-over 
explaining that the dormant dragons returned to Earth's surface and pretty 
much took shit over.  They destroyed everything with their fire breath 
(because they eat the ash), and drove the few remaining humans into hiding. 

One of the last enclaves of life is in Northumberland, England, which is 
where we meet protagonist Quinn Abercromby (Christian Bale, Captain 
Corelli's Mandolin), who just happens to be the kid from the prologue. 
Quinn is in charge of a group containing a handful of adults and a lot of 
children who appear to be the same age (repopulating the Earth sounds so 
sexy!), and his biggest problem is riding a horse out to the few crops of 
food they're able to grow under the constant threat of dragon attack.  At 
least that's his biggest problem until the Americans show up. 

Those irritating Yanks arrive with tanks, helicopters, a superior attitude 
and a leader named Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey, 13 Conversations 
About One Thing), who has not only killed a dragon or two, but has a zany 
plan for ridding the planet of the suckers (and it has nothing to do with 
dragons being so stupid, like our friend Sam assumed).  What ensues is not 
only a battle against the dragons, but a power struggle between Quinn and 
Denton that threatens the entire operation.  Then there's the Big Battle 
Scene at the end, and everyone goes home happy...or wondering where the 
Americans found the fuel to operate their macho machinery. 

As fun as it is to mock, there are plenty of things to admire about Fire, 
starting with the dusty, bluish photography from Adrian Biddle (The Mummy 
Returns), the terrific voice-over at the beginning (and accompanying 
newspapers recounting the destruction of various cities), and, to a much 
lesser extent, the Willard-Kilgore relationship between Quinn and Denton. 
There are a couple of somewhat memorable scenes, including a very funny 
spoof of the finale of The Empire Strikes Back, and another where the 
Americans make Band of Brothers' Easy Company look like a bunch of pansies. 
Bale has never done anything for me acting-wise, but McConaughey is fun to 
watch, especially since his recent graduation from the Steve Forbes School 
of Acting, because the bastard didn't blink once during the entire film. 
Still, one can't help wondering how cool Vin Diesel would have been in that 
role (and how fucked up is that?). 

1:46 - PG-13 for intense action violence

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X-RAMR-ID: 32298
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 737202
X-RT-TitleID: 1114678
X-RT-SourceID: 595
X-RT-AuthorID: 1146
X-RT-RatingText: 6/10