Here There Be Dragons (official Reign of Fire thread)
AICN posted a couple reviews of this upcoming flick today.
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=12605
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Psyclops says, 'REIGN OF FIRE Kicks ASS!!!'
Harry here... This is the exact sort of fricking movie that I'm dying to see right now at 6:12am this nice Thursday Morning! Ahem... BUUUUT it isn't showing so I'm shit out of luck. Word has been positive from the start... Smilin Jack Ruby has been so stoked on this baby, you'd see his beam of promising light on Mars. There is something about a Dragon movie that makes me WANT to believe. The burn from DRAGONHEART is still sore, and while DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS blew ass from 30 yards, those Blue lips screaming to be thrown the rod, just cracked me up the right way... But as a bad super cheese film. THIS is promising serious ass-whupping Dragon action and aftermath. This is what's for dinner as Mitchum would say...
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Reign of Fire press screening review:
First...
For those of you who have been proclaiming this movie to be the next Battlefield Earth, I am pleased to say that you were all very, very wrong. While REIGN OF FIRE isn’t the most original concept (it has a little bit of Aliens, The Road Warrior and Dirty Dozen thrown in the mix) it is definitely the most entertaining movie of the summer. It not only boasts some great special effects and scary looking monsters, it also has strong and believable characters that you really care about.
By now we have all seen enough of the trailers and television promos to know the basic setup - Dragons have awakened in the near future and have systematically taken over the entire world. They breathe fire and incinerate everything in their path while the remaining human survivors must band together to stop the devastation. We have Quinn (Christian Bale), who is the leader of a small community that has survived by hiding inside of an old castle on the English countryside. We get to see how these people barely manage to thrive and keep up hope that mankind will rebuild and remain the dominant species... then we witness a vicious attack by a dragon that has wandered near the castle and we truly begin to understand their plight.
Into their world comes a military squad of Dragonslayers led by Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), a hotheaded American soldier with a passion for killing the scaly beasts. He’s discovered a way to defeat the dragons, a way to give mankind the upper hand. This starts off the journey of two natural born leaders who must join together to defeat the winged beasts once and for all. Okay, if all that sounded like something you’d read off the back of a video box cover then it means I’m taking too long in getting to the point.
Reign of Fire kicks ass.
In fact, this movie kicks more ass than anything I’ve had the pleasure of seeing all summer (and I really enjoyed Spider-Man and Star Wars). One of the big differences between a movie like this and a movie like Godzilla is that the characters are actually interesting people. They feel like real human beings, not just food for a big scary monster to chew on. Christian Bale surprised me. He does a hell of a job as the good guy (for a change) and totally gets into the ‘action hero’ mode. He is a man who cares about the people he’s protecting and he does so with his very life. The same can be said for Matthew McConaughey’s character, a hardened military commander who sheds tears for the soldiers he’s lost in battle.
I must be kidding, right? There’s no way that you can pull off something like this without sacrificing plot, characters or both. Well, this movie managed to do it all and keep the audience thoroughly entertained. What more can I say? Great characters. Fire breathing Dragons. Sky diving as bait to catch a hungry flying reptile. This movie has it all (even a terrific ‘bughunt’ sequence through the charred remains of London). Oh, and you George Lucas fans are going to love the homage to Star Wars, it’s one of the best scenes in the movie!
Psyclops
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=12611
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A Pair of Different Views on REIGN OF FIRE
Hey folks, Harry here with a pair of views on REIGN OF FIRE... This first one seems to have wanted a straight up action film, and was disappointed to an extreme to find himself in the midst of a Drama about Dragons and Dragonfighting instead. He seems upset that it wasn't camp and actually took the concept seriously. UGH! Anyway, here's The Gater... There are spoilers in his review...
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Hey Harry,
I wasn't going to write in about "Reign of Fire," but after reading your reader's positive review, I felt I had to chime in with a couple of MINOR spoilers. I'm not going to get into the plot because everyone knows what it's about. I saw this movie last night at the AMC Empire in NYC.
There was only one word to describe this film: Unacceptable. This movie was unacceptable. The acting was terrible (and I like Christian bale...Matthew I can take or leave), the direction was clumsy, the music was bland and the effects were not up to par.
This movie isn't even an action film. It's a drama. A drama about dragons. A drama about dragons that takes itself seriously. Even Independence Day was smart enough to put some camp in it, but Reign of Fire acts like there is a serious chance that one day we'll have a dragon problem. Violence? Nope, not much. Two people get eaten. That's it. Two. The rest get burned...which consistently takes place off-screen, just to make sure that the audience can't be entertained at all. And speaking of people dying, the only people who do die, die because they are being stupid. It's very hard to mourn idiots.
There was only one good scene in this movie. Two of the characters act out the climax of "The Empire Strikes Back" for some kids. That's the only good scene. And it's a scene that could have easily gotten cut out of the movie.
The only reason this movie is better than "Battlefield Earth" is because it's about twenty mins shorter.
This movie is boring, it is not suspenseful, it is not violent, it is not fun. And they should go back and reshoot the whole thing. Or better yet, rerelease "Dragonheart." Hell, at least that has Sean Connery.
-The Gater
Now for the exact opposite take on REIGN OF FIRE.... here's Kevin Spa... I mean John Doe...
Reign of Fire Review
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Last night I had the pleasure of catching a preview screening of Reign of Fire in New York. This was one of only a handful of movies that I was looking forward to seeing this summer. Needless to say I went in with high expectations and for one the few times in the last two years I was not let down.
It opens in modern day London where a young Quinn is the first to see the father of the millions of dragons to come. After several deaths and a montage describing the rise of the beasts we are in a post apocalyptic future. Apparently the combination of the dragons and nuclear bombs have left the world in a state of ruin. We are told that the dragons have run out of food which will make them even more dangerous.
We are then introduced to an adult Quinn ( an un-Patrick Bateman like Christian Bale ) who runs a refugee camp / orphanage. A bit later Van Zan ( McConaughey ) and his dragon slaying militia show up. The two initially quarrel quite a bit before joining to go to London and "bring down the beast". It is when they arrive in London that there is an amazing shot of the city in ruins and hundreds of dragons. The fact that prior to that point we only saw one dragon at a time made the shot that much more brilliant.
There were many other cool scenes including a sky diving sequence and a memorable stunt by Van Zan. Over all I highly recommend it and greatly look forward to the double team of this and Road to Perdition on July 12th.
JOHN DOE
Discuss.
