Reign of Fire (2002, Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey) – Classic Film Review 1201

Director Rob Bowman’s fun but flawed 2002 post-apocalyptic action fantasy film stars Christian Bale as the leader of a motley band of survivors living in a castle in Northumberland, England, in the year 2020 who attempt to stave off vicious attacks by lethal fire-breathing dragons that earlier have reawakened from hibernation during construction on the London Underground.

It’s an amusing and quite appealing but creaky and unconvincing fantasy adventure, with Bale making a surprisingly unexciting hero as Quinn Abercromby and Matthew McConaughey way over the top as Denton Van Zan, a muscular, gung-ho Yank who arrives in a tank to save the day.

He’s the leader of a group of dragon-hunting American soldiers, the Kentucky Irregulars, heavily armed and well kitted up, complete with a Chieftain tank and an Agusta A109 helicopter, piloted by Alex Jensen (Izabella Scorupco).

Van Zan also has an elaborate tracking system to hunt the dragons with a 300ft wide wingspan and knows their one weakness—poor vision just before sunset. Quinn is initially distrustful and surprised that anyone can kill dragons, but is won over and convinced to cooperate and work with Van Zan to kill the dragon that destroyed their crops.

The special effects are enjoyably hokey but the $60million production doesn’t have the vast budget it takes to make this work really well. The film grossed about $82 million.

Also starring Gerard Butler as Creedy, Scott Moutter as Jared Wilke, David Kennedy as Eddie Stax, Alexander Siddig as Ajay, Alexander Siddig as Ajay and Alice Krige as Quinn’s mum, Karen Abercromby.

It was filmed in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland, on condition everything was cleaned up after and the crew didn’t damage the landscape. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Europe enforced restrictions that meant many planned sequences couldn’t be shot. Artem designed and built the dragon; The Secret Lab did the visual effects .

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1201

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

A dragon with a 300ft wide wingspan and its offspring fly high over the ruins of London, having burnt Big Ben and Parliament to ash.