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Directed by: Rob Bowman Starring: Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey Most post-apocalyptic settings in film are the result of nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or some other variation of a cautionary message about powerful but unstoppable weapons in the hands of madmen. Reign of Fire does away with any such pretenses, casting a reawakened species of dragons as the cause of the end of the world, without any sort of guilt complex about manmade forms of armageddon. I remember seeing the poster for it in the lobby of the local cineplex a month or so before it was slated to open, and it looked really cool: helicopters and fire-breathing dragons duking it out over the scorched landscape of London? Sold! Unfortunately, the film isn’t quite what the poster lead me to believe, though it still delivers an equally outrageous premise, if not the one I was hoping for. The setting of Reign of Fire is pretty similar to Mad Max or other variations of the same subgenre. A sudden catastrophe wipes out most of the Earth’s population, leaving a few scattered survivors who band together to try and rebuild while avoiding the lurking dangers of their new wasteland home. Instead of the outback, Reign of Fire takes place the English countryside, where a group of people have taken up home in an abandoned castle. They live in constant fear of an attack by the dragons, which makes venturing out into the world to gather food a hazard few are willing to risk. As they struggle to maintain order in their own micro-community, a group of rowdy American ex-military dragon fighters arrives, looking for a place to stay for a few nights and refit their weapons, causing mistrust and havoc as their true motivations becomes evident. Reign of Fire is a B-movie with a ninety five million dollar budget, so gone are any hopes of a cheesy, campy adventure ala Roger Corman or John Carpenter, and the ridiculous premise keeps it out of respectable blockbuster territory, so what kind of movie can this be, other than a bad one? The only real saving grace of the film is the special effects and the world that is created by the art direction team. The effects, props and sets are stunning, and the film is a joy to look at, but the story and characters aren’t given a similar “upgrade,” are remain as wooden and contrived as one would expect. The premise itself is so outrageous that it would be hard to hope for anything of significant value, but the execution takes away what little joy there is to be had in watching Patrick Bateman Director Rob Bowman (who mostly worked in television before Reign) seems pretty comfortable with the action scenes and capturing the brilliant creature effects, but the dramatic scenes are almost uniformly laughable. Christian Bale’s character is the only one with any sort of depth or ability to relate to the audience, everyone else being either hopelessly underdeveloped or a dull caricature. McConaughey throws enough zeal into his role as Van Zaan to stay entertaining for a few minutes, but his shtick wears off pretty quickly. The horribly forced romance between Bale and the helicopter pilot is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. They don’t even kiss! They just stare into space reading off their horrible dialogue as the audience’s eyes roll into the back of their heads. There are a few really cool scenes throughout the film, but as a whole, it’s a real disappointment. The shamelessness of the basis for the film and some of the ideas they come up with are interesting (jumping out of helicopters with nets to kill a dragon? I wouldn’t have thought of that), but the highs of the scenes that do work are overshadowed by the lows of the rest of the film. This might be a good film to watch with your friends if you’re in the right mood (I’m sure there is some kind of drinking game that goes with it), but it’s really just a made for TV movie with a ton of money behind it. It’s probably better than what Michael Bay churns out, but that isn’t saying a lot. Rent it or download it. A 2.5 for dragons, but there was a lot of unfulfilled potential here. RATING: 2.5 PROS: here be dragons... CONS: and bad dialogue/directing/storytelling ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253556/
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Jul 4, 2004 21:03
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 16:36 |
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