Well, I was excited about this film since first time I heard about it. I mean dragons rising in the present time and taking over the earth, and the small bad of survivors fighting them to give humans a chance. Sounds great to me Then, the first trailer came out, and it looked even more attractive. Both McConahey and Bale are good actors and the creature fx in the trailers looked awesome. So I started counting days till the movie premiere date, which happened last friday. I couldnt go to see then though, and had to wait till Sunday to finally catch it.
Unfortunately, my friend(who is another movie crazy like me) couldnt make it, so me, DJ and wife, got into the car and started our quest. We got to theater on time, and me and dj rushed to get the tickets, while wife stayed behind to look at some clothes. While waiting, we played few rounds of Tekken 4, and I got DJ ass kicked. But the time was growing short, and wife was still nowhere to be found. I started get nervous, since I have a phobia of being late, so I was walking back and forth until she finally showed up on the horizon. We made it into the audience right before the movie started, so I missed all the trailers , but at least not the movie itself.
Ok, So without further ado, I will get to my impressions now.
The film started great, with cool direction, muted colors, birds flying, and as it lead as the path of young Quin(future Bale character), as he visits his mother working in one of the underground tunnels under London. There the workers discover the underground cave, and Quin goes inside for a look, and that leads to the first Dragon encounter. The huge best escapes, destroying everything on its path, and thus the Dragon's Reign of Fire begins.
The history told in very cool newspaper/magazine/tv footage clips, and tell us on how the dragons rise and almost destroyed the world. It was interesting to see Time Magizine asking : Is it the End???
20 years later, the earth in the ruines, and remaining humas have to band together, always watching the skies for the dragons. The small English community lead by now grown up Quin just trying to survive, since they believe that dragons will die out once they run out of food(aka humans). And then US Army unit shows up, lead by Van Zan(McConehey), and they try to convince people that they can bring the dragons down, and have a special mission. Which leads to many exciting and tense scenes of heroes battling dragons.
The film direction and pace were very good. I like the use of dark and gloomy colors, showing the earth burned to ashes, great appocalyptic sets with ruins, smoke and fires everywhere. Nice visual toches like the burning ruins of London, with herds of dragons like giant birds flying abound building and nesting on the burned rooftops. Very cool site.
The story was not bad, sure it has many usual chiches, like many other Hollywood films do, but it also had some nice original touches. First its hero is not American, and there are quite a few anti american jokes(like in one conversation Bale says There is one thing worse than the Dragons - Americans !), and even though it has a second lead Van Zan, who is gungho US military dragon slayer, the story is not emphasizes on him, but both actor share the scenes nicely.
In acting department, both Bale and Mc..hey deliver good performance, both have a dramatic moments, sad scenes and also high energy action scenes. Mc..hey is all pumped-up and his body covered in war paint tattos, as he takes on huge beast with just a shotgun and hand axe, he looks tough.
Bale is shown as a guy who had no choice but to lead his people, and really cares about the safety and future of his community.
Next stop - Action scenes. This film is not non stop action fest some might think from the trailer. It combines many character interaction scenes, with dragon battles, and I never felt bored during its course. The temp is nice, and once action comes, its very exciting. The scene of dragon air hunt, as a team of "Archangels" go after one huge beast in the sky is great. I read reviews of complaining of fast cutting, but havent seen anything wrong with those scenes. Everything played on great. I wish they would had the helicopter vs dragon battle, but otherwise, the film delivered in action department. Last battle against the Dragon King was tense and exciting.
FX - Dragons looked amazing. Not shiny and fake cgi looking, but like real ferocious and deadly bests. They looked real, dirty and believable. They moved great both in air with grace and power, and on eath where their movements were hindered, but the way the crawl, made them look even scarrier. You could believe that those beast did kick both dinosaur and human asses. Fire fx were also nicely done, and there are alot of fire stunts in the film, as characters jump and dodge the deadly dragon flames. I loved the scene where Dragon King, was on top of the castle, among the flames, very great image.
Sure there are some things that can be nitpicked, but the movie excited me, so I had no time for those. I will also post my theory about Dragon species in the PS section, with the Spoiler sign.
At the end I enjoyed this film alot. It was exciting, had interesting story and good actor performances, great fx, cool action scenes and was just fun. Find some time and see it. Support it since it only made 16 million past weekend, and I'm afraid will die in the next few weeks, when CRAP like MIB2 makes 100 millions !!!!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you will enjoy the film as I did.
P.S. Spoiler !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the defense of the Dragons in Reign of Fire:
Well, I think the way the dragon species worked, they had one male at the time, and male would kill the opposition or its young if they were male. He would feed on the females of the species, when no other food around, but females would still be attracted to him, because of procreation instict would drive them to lay eggs for him to prime.
I think what would happen in case a male dies, another one still can get born from one of the eggs hattchings replacing him, and guarantiing the species continuation. It somewhat simular to how the Alien species are in the Alien series. One brood can only have 1 queen at the time to lay eggs, and if the oned one appears, the existing queen will kill it. But when queen dies, a new one gets born, as you seen from Alien 3.
I think Dragons in Reign of Fire had same structure, only with male in charge. So I bet there should be more dragons somewhere in the world, just not in the England brood, which would die down, without male.
Nice impressions Despair, BTW for some reason I like your stories that lead up to you going to the Movies and how you are anxious to get to the Movie on time. Did you get popcorn too?
No, We pretty much rushed into the room, and when we got inside, it was already getting pretty dark, with film about to start, so we pretty much run up the stairs after DJ to grab seats somewhere in the last few rows. It wasnt very packed, but about half of the sits were taken, and I hate trying to squeez in when people are sitting.
Honestly I'm not a big fan of popcorn, plus I hate the fact that theater snacks a greatly overpriced. I understand that its the way for the theaters to make money and survive, but when I allready paid $18 for tickets, I dont think I will pay another $3 just for a can of Coke, which I can buy in Food court for $1. So I made some sandwiches for DJ, in case he gets hungry during the movie, and also grabbed couple cans of Diet Rite.
The good thing about this film, was that they didnt just put attention to the fx, but also had an interesting story, and characters to care about. And ofcourse some cool action sequences to make the ride more fun
I don't remember any star Wars scene, but I love the movie, The dragons's were sweet, The action scene was well-done. As a Sci-Fi fan I say it was 9.5/10.
Quinn and his friend were replaying a scene simular to the scene from Empire Strikes Back, where Darth Vader tells Luke that he is his father before watching group of kids.
The Darkest Soul
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