REIGN OF FIRE opens kinda alright in 2002 with a teenage boy being the first
person to see a dragon rising up out of the ground. Then, during the
opening credits, we're told about how badass the dragons are and how all of the
military forces in the world couldn't defeat them and how they fought
tooth and nail in all of these super badass battles until finally....in 2020
everything has been burned up and now all we're left with is a bunch of
half-starved survivors cowering in a blown up castle doing absolutely
nothing. Just waiting to die. The leader of this band of nobodies is
Christian Bale who somehow, in this grim environment, has found enough energy
and protein to get yoked.
Then, in rides the equally yoked up Matthew McConaughey as an American soldier
with a small army consisting of soldiers, a few armored vehicles and even a
helicopter! Some macho, alpha male posturing happens followed by a small
dragon skirmish to show the viewer how these American studs deal with the
dragons. It's mildly exciting. After that, more alpha male stuff
happens until the boss fight at the end. Yawn.
I went into REIGN OF FIRE expecting tons of dragon versus human action.
Droves of helicopters versus a thousand flying dragons, well-armed soldiers
fighting dragons in awesome street combat scenes....nope, instead we get a
handful of stragglers quivering in fear and then some soldiers dudes that end up
only killing two dragons total! Double yawn.
Mediocre acting by Bale and McConaughey (I honestly expected better from both of
them), weak story, okay special effects, lame dragon vision, fake as fook
looking tattoos, nearly all male cast, young Joffery, unsatisfying beginning,
middle and ending. It's easy to see why this tanked at the box
office after it's opening weekend. Skip it.