Stars: Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, David Kennedy, Gerard Butler, Alexander Siddig

Director: Rob Bowman

Summary: Set in the year 2018, the world has almost been destroyed by fire breathing dragons. A small group of survivors set out to find and destroy the only male dragon, thus ensuring the downfall of the species...

In present-day London, 10 year-old Quinn visits his construction engineer mother at her work. When he crawls into a cavern the workers have uncovered, he finds a large, fire-breathing dragon--which destroys the site and kills his mother. Fast-forward to 2020. Quinn (Christian Bale, AMERICAN PSYCHO) is living in a castle in Northumberton, the leader of survivors of the dragon plague which has wiped out a large portion of the human population. He and his colony, including dozens of orphans, eke out an existence in hopes that the human race will someday take back the planet from the gigantic, winged monsters. Enter Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), a war-mad American and his team of military trained fighters. They offer to team up with Quinn and his people, but only if they consent to the American's extreme tactics to destroy the fire-breathing beasts.
Directed by Rob Bowman (X FILES), REIGN OF FIRE combines elements of ALIENS, THE ROAD WARRIOR, and 1981's DRAGONSLAYER for a potent genre cocktail that takes a traditionally medieval monster into the future and injects it into state-of-the-art action sequences. The film plays as post-apocalyptic sci-fi, but the stunningly executed dragon sequences are pure horror, especially as the menacing creatures slaughter prominent characters with extreme speed and ruthlessness.

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Reviewed by: philreyn
Posted on October 24, 2005 1:34 PM

A movie about dragons, set in Britain, and with a mostly British cast. I thought, not a formula for a great movie, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Christian Bale, and Matthew McConaughey are excellent in the lead roles, the action is very good, and the story enjoyable. This is not a film that will suit all critics, but I really enjoyed it, and I loved the dragon scenes. Another plus, is that it has a sensible ending, not one that leaves you flat and depressed as some filmakers have a habit of doing these days.

Reviewed by: davybozal24-7
Posted on August 24, 2006 11:00 AM

Utterly compelling and rivetting viewing about a young man coming to terms with his mothers brutal death at the hands, or wings, haha
of a rather large and nasty looking dragon. Set in the future of 2020 amidst a dark and at some times gothic desolated Britain which has been turned to ash by the rampaging fire - breathing mythical monsters . Christian Bale plays the brave, sensitive and sometimes obsessed character of Quinn who is the leader of a small band of survivers and stragglers who team up with a bunch of American militia to take the dragons down if possible !

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Not quite the large-scale epic it promised to be, Reign of Fireis still an enjoyable entry in the post-catastrophe genre. It opens in present-day London with a boy witnessing the rebirth of the race of dragons, who are supposed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and now devastate the world again. Skipping the collapse of society with a montage of magazine articles about the world in flames, we jump into the future where the remnants of humanity cower in enclaves and fire-breathing raggedy-winged bat-lizards prowl the land. Christian Bale commands a castle in Northumberland, trying to preserve humanity, while Matthew McConaughey is an iron man warrior intent on tracking down and destroying the dragon king, making for a hero-against-hero clash of values which, for a change, finds the British preserver of life, rather than the Yankee animal-killer, getting the girl and the glory.

The film consists mostly of scrabbling about in the ruins, and it rather skimps on the big dragon battles the script seems to demand. There's little here that hasn't been done before in The Day of the Triffidson television or that slew of Italian Mad Maximitations of the early 1980s. But director Rob Bowman (The X-Files) and a good cast handle themselves well, and the few times that the dragons do show up they deliver an acceptable burst of fiery horror. --Kim Newman

On the DVD:Reign of Firehas a fairly perfunctory set of additional features on disc. A brief (under 10 minutes) making-of documentary consists mainly of computer geek animators obsessing about CG effects; back in the real world, "If You Can't Stand the Heat" looks at the on-set pyrotechnics. Director Rob Bowman chats affably about the project in a separate interview. Trailers for the movie and video game form the balance. The subdued (ie. gloomy) colours come up well in the anamorphic widescreen print, and the evocative soundscape is suitably full of sub-woofer-friendly rumblings, thuddings and explosions. --Mark Walker

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer, Featurettes - 1. IF YOU CAN TAKE THE HEAT, 2. BREATHING LIFE INTO TERROR
Year:	2002
Release Date:	June 9, 2003
Runtime:	105 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B E D 888705
Label:	Spyglass Entertainment
Keywords:	Fire, General, Fiction, Science, Horror, Reign, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Science Fiction