Reign of Fire: Movie Review (2008)

Directed by Rob Bowman, ritten by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg, 100 minutes, rated PG-13.

As Rob Bowman’s new sci-fi thriller “Reign of Fire” sees it, within 18 years the world will be toast, humans will be an endangered species and fire-breathing dragons will rule what’s left of the Earth.

Finally, some good news.

The film, from a script by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg, follows Earth’s remaining few inhabitants as they fight for survival in an atmosphere that promises death at every turn.

They are of two camps, the first being some dusty, castle-dwelling Brits led by Quinn (Christian Bale), a hairy bloke who first encountered these dragons as a wee lad in London, when they bloodied his mum in an elevator mine shaft.

He’s bitter and it shows.

The second camp comprises a gaggle of white-trash hillbillies from Kentucky led by the cigar-chomping, much-tattooed Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey)—a man’s man who seems to exist purely by instinct and who embraces his inner-redneck sensibilities with a brio that’s every bit as creepy as the critters crawling within his Vandyke beard.

After some initial chest thumping between Quinn and Van Zan, both groups make nice and become one, joining forces in an all-out effort to contain the burgeoning dragon population, which is somehow being fueled by the seed of only one male, a fiery beast who has the thankless responsibility of spanning the globe and impregnating each of the one million females.

Naturally, it’s up to Quinn, Van Zan et al to find that lone male and put an arrow through its heart—which, theoretically, will finish off the dragons.

As directed by Bowman, who scored big with “The X-Files” movie, “Reign of Fire” predictably has testosterone to spare, so much so that its target audience of prepubescent boys might leave the theater slightly taller, a bit more seasoned--and with male pattern baldness.

The film is as high-octane as you’d expect; even the dragons have a swagger. Moments are incomprehensible and there are plot holes aplenty, but there are also some well-conceived battle scenes that divert attention from the occasionally hilarious dialogue, which is not above asking its characters to shriek, “Lock and load, baby! Lock and load!,” even if they are only readying a crossbow.

Grade: C+

Check out the trailer below (hahahahahaha!):