Subject: Review: Reign of Fire (2002)

From: Laura Clifford <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 01:46:13 -0000

REIGN OF FIRE 
------------- 

In present day London, a young boy visits his mother at a construction site 
and awakens a beast only accredited to myth and legend.  Twenty years 
later, that boy, Quinn (Christian Bale, "American Psycho"), is helping a 
community survive the scorched earth within the ruins of a castle when an 
American dragonslayer arrives to unseat what has become a "Reign of Fire." 

Story-by guys Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, who wrote the screenplay with 
Matt Greenberg, cooked up this premise during a backpacking trip throughout 
Britain.  For the most part, this is popcorn movie fun with equal doses of 
action, cheese, ham and cheek (as well as a serious debt to "The Road 
Warrior"), but it feels like unrealized potential, as if the filmmakers 
only went halfway and filled in the gaps with cliche. 

Quinn the kid (Ben Thornton) has a tweaking sense of humor.  Quinn the 
adult, while mostly serious, will perform the Darth Vadar/Luke Skywalker 'I 
am  your father' scene with his best mate Creedy (Gerard Butler, 
"Harrison's Flowers") for the kids and claim authorship.  While he banters 
with Creedy ('If anything happens, you know what do to.' 'No I don't!'), 
mostly Quinn is in the solemn business of protecting his community from the 
overhead peril and their own rash judgement.  When danger looms (a tower 
lookout with a predatory bird signals), Quinn herds the children (each and 
every one a wide eyed English poppet) into the castle chapel and demands 
they recite their 'prayer,' which is really a dragon 'duck and cover' 
recitation.  Besides Creedy, Quinn is assisted by young Jared (Scott James 
Moutter), a surrogate son and symbol of his lost childhood. 

When a stream of tanks arrive bearing American military dragonslayers 
seeking overnight shelter, Quinn is suspicious and the writers have fun 
with stereotypes as a soldier tosses one kid an apple (all chocolate 
presumably having been melted by dragon breath).  Van Zan (Matthew 
McConaughey, a convergence of Mad Max and Toecutter) forces an uneasy 
alliance with Quinn until he proves himself with a spectacular (and 
confusing) display of hi-tech dragon hunting. 

Van Zan is idolized by his men, which includes helicopter Alex (Izabella 
Scorpuco, "Goldeneye," only occasionally successful hiding her accent), a 
potential love interest for Quinn.  She rides over the horizon to lure a 
dragon, then parachuting 'angels' (life expectancy is 16 seconds once they 
leave the copter) act as bait, firing nets and bringing the animal towards 
Van Zan for the kill.  McConaughey is linked to the beast by his grunts and 
'hrrrs' which the sound mix.  Just before we learn that they must 
obliterate the lone male dragon (which killed Quinn's mum (Alice Krige) 
twenty years earlier) in order to save mankind, Van Zan is seen astride his 
tank, its cannon phallically pointing towards London.  (And while it's 
refreshingly different to go after daddy for a change, won't the thousands 
of pregnant females still pose a threat for years to come?)  McConaughey is 
burdened with the worst of the dialogue, particularly a wet blanket speech 
given to Quinn's community when they're partying away to Hendrix's "Fire" 
after his dragon kill. 

Cinematographer Adrian Biddle ("Thelma and Louise") alternates his palette 
between steely blue grays and blood orange fire glow. Visual Effects 
Supervisor Richard R. Hoover hits (Bale is seamlessly integrated up close 
and personal with the big, bad beastie, 'Angels' catapult through misty 
clouds as dragon bait) and misses (McConaughey's harpoon platform stands 
before obvious bluescreen, dragons flying in the distance frequently scream 
CGI).  The filmmakers can't get away from the 'fire shooting upwards 
through conical tower' cliche which was recently overdone in "The Hollow Man."

Director Rob Bowman ("The X-Files") more than likely has a summer hit on 
his hands, but with more effort and polish, "Reign of Fire" might have been 
something more lasting. 

B- 

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X-RAMR-ID: 32309
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 737588
X-RT-TitleID: 1114678
X-RT-SourceID: 386
X-RT-AuthorID: 1487
X-RT-RatingText: B-