What if dragons were real? What if they came back? Could we stop them in time before they scorched the earth and ruled the land? This movie will answer that question.

A great movie, I'm not big on Fantasy as much as Science Fiction but this was the bomb! Holding your breath watching people try to outrun dragons...well lets just say they make the critters in jurassic park look look like the next door neighbors annoying terrier!

Medieval fantasy meets futuristic science fiction in this movie! In present-day London, 12-year-old Quinn Abercromby witnesses the awakening of a hibernating dragon from a centuries-long slumber, the result of a construction dig supervised by his mother and an incident for which Quinn feels partially responsible.

Twenty years later, the adult Quinn (Christian Bale) is the fire chief of a refortified castle community, responsible for dousing the blazes lit by the dragon's prodigious number of flame-spewing offspring, airborne juggernauts that have wreaked havoc across the globe, torching civilization and turning humans into an endangered species.

Hope arrives in the form of Denton "Dragon Slayer" Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), an American known to be the only man to ever kill one of the dragons, and Alex Jenson (Izabella Scorupco), a scientist/pilot who's a member of Van Zan's army, a zealous fighting force that includes a secret weapon: the Archangels, paratroopers using themselves as bait to attract and then dispatch the deadly beasts.

Rent it, buy it, if you like sci fi or fantasy, you must see this movie!!

This plot didn't make a lot of sense. We are told dragons have taken over the skies of earth, yet we hardly see any flying around. I rented this because Gerard Butler is in it. He has the best lines then gets killed off. Christian Bale has an angry expression on his face for the entire movie, I bet he was sorry he signed the contract. Matthew McConnaughy chews up the scenery with gusto, he looks like the only one having any fun. If the dragons only eat ash, why do they chomp on people? This is for hardcore sci-fi/fantasy fans only.

This is the type of film I take out of my DVD library to watch whenever I'm bored and don't want to watch a movie that requires too much thinking. I do prefer smart movies over mindless action with no plot, but "Reign of Fire" is an exception to that rule. The story is pretty cool (writing could be better though) and the acting is above average thanks to Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey (I thought he was wildly entertaining here). The best thing about this film is of course the look of the dragons themselves. The CGI creatures are up there with anything ILM has done of late, with the only downside being that they are not shown on screen as often as one might think. So ignore the plot holes (if dragons feed on tons of ash, why chase and eat a few pesky humans running around?) and just enjoy this one for what it is, brainless fun that will achieve what movies are suppose to do...entertain.

Hordes of fire-breathing, human-eating dragons. A devastated, smouldering modern-day England. Christian Bale as the monastic, stalwart leader of a besieged castle full of dispirited Englishmen. A wild-eyed Matt McConaughey as a rogue U.S. military commander.

Oh, did I mention Apache helicopter gunships versus Dragons?

If you want nearly two hours of char-broiled goodness and don't mind disengaging your brain, then read no further, and pop "Reign of Fire" on the hopper.

Now for some background: Back in the early nineties, NYU college buddies Kevin Peterka and Greg Chabott went backpacking through the United Kingdom; as they hiked, they talked; Greg had taken along a vintage 1939 typewriter, and they typed up their ideas. They used the storied English landscape, with its castles and legends of dragons, to churn out their first screenplay, which was entitled "When Heroes go Down" and which they sold on spec , ultimately picked up by Spyglass pictures.

Spyglass spiffed up the script and mercifully renamed it "Reign of Fire", but at the core of the movie was Chabott and Peterka's original vision of a fire-breathing dragon going claw a mano with an Apache gunship. And that, I'm happy to say, is what is at the center of this roaringly fun and occasionally inspired movie about fire-breathing dragons rampaging through the England of 2020.

Yes it's flawed. Yes it's uneven. Yes, the editing on the battles between man and monster is often so bad as to make it hard to follow what's going on. And yes, you desperately want to see more of the dragons. But don't be overly critical, for "Reign" is a flame-roasted cheesefest.

The movie's promotional campaign, featuring the sky above London's Houses of Parliament teeming with marauding dragons, was a bit misleading: other than a brief introduction by the narrator Quinn (played feverishly well by Christian Bale), the events of the movie are focused on the pitched battle between a gigantic uber-dragon, some frightened English civilians in a Scottish castle, and a band of renegade American soldiers under the command of Van Zan (played by a steely-eyed, cigar smoking Matthew McConaughey, who appears to be having the time of his career), who are there to chew bubble gum and kick dragon butt.

Oh, and they're all outta bubble gum.

The reign of fire, and the millions of dragons that come with it, was spawned by the nasty uber-dragon, who came crawling up out of the bowels of London after a development project unearthed his 'final' resting place---and that titular reign lasts about 3 seconds.

That's pretty much all that is needed, though: the Earth itself is a burned, desolate wasteland, roasted by the dragons and decimated by mankind's last gasp, a futile nuclear strike that did more damage to humanity than it did to the dragons. Society has regressed to the medieval, and merely venturing out for a few turnips can mean death---nasty, screeching, fiery death.

But what's bad for English civilians is great fun for the audience, particularly when Van Zann's dragonslayers (who have tanks and the obligatory Apache gunship) show up. The movie was made for a relatively trifling $117 million, and it's all up on the screen: movie dragons have never looked so terrifying.

Nor has a B-monster movie looked so good, and that's not a surprise: "Reign"'s director of Photography is the brilliant Adrian Biddle, who did the cinematography for Aliens, Princess Bride, Willow, and The Mummy. All of the sequences, particularly the castle, are crisp, harrowing, and beautifully shot.
The DVD is crisp and gorgeous (and stuffed with some useful extras), the setting is bleak and atmospheric, the dragons are gorgeous to behold, director Rob Bowman (who also helmed "X-Files:Fight the Future") keeps the action rolling along, and Matthew McConaughey's death-defying mid-air leap at a dragon's spikey, smelly, smokey craw must be seen to be believed.

Here be Dragons.

JSG

Dragons!! They look like just what the are - drawn onto a screen like cartoons!

The story is okay in a dark, fantasy kind of way. The only reason I would ever see something like this is to follow the career of one of its' stars. In this case, Gerard Butler.

He plays the most human and natural character in the film, Creedy. Cracking wise with Christian Bale, interacting with the children of this dark, unpleasant place, and doing the hero that takes the ultimate risk, he is lively and interesting. I wanted to know more about his character. But, what do we get? Bale and his two expressions. Dour and dourer.

And then there is Matthew McConaughey and his odd super-dooper nut job. Strangely, I enjoyed watching him more than the boring Bale. At least Matthew did crazy well.

In fantasy films it is best to go in with your disbelief in check. A good one will just carry you along for the ride. This is not a very good one.

But The Butler is worth a watch. 6/10