Movie Review #44 - Reign of Fire
Jul. 15th, 2007 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2I missed this movie on the big screen the first time around and always wanted to see it. Seeing that it vanished with barely a trace, I was worried about its quality but I was pleasantly surprised on that score.
First check of the watch - too riveted on the screen to look away.
I love post-apocalyptic fiction and this was a good example of the genre. Let's ignore the genesis of the dragons and just get to the main part of the movie. It's grim, it's harsh and life has changed utterly. Children are taught a catechism for survival in the new era they live in. I like it when the social consequences of the apocalypse are explored and this movie started out well, with Christian Bale putting a great turn as Quinn, the leader of a relatively prosperous survivor community - they have excess grain to ferment and the children all look well nourished.
Of course things can never stay left alone and through the actions of one of the survivors - Creedy, played to good effect by Gerard Butler - the community comes under threat. A strange force turns up to "rescue" them and everything spins out of control from there. The final battle is riveting edge-of-the-seat stuff.
Wonderful atmosphere and look to the entire movie, the SFX are good and the acting is generally good. The story is, barring the "origin" hocus-pocus, well written and paced with clear characterisation. The highlight for me was seeing the destroyed skyline of London with hundreds of female dragons swarming across it as they try to escape from the increasingly berserk only male dragon.
I liked this so much that I may even go and see if I can find some fanfic for this - and I never do that!
First check of the watch - too riveted on the screen to look away.
I love post-apocalyptic fiction and this was a good example of the genre. Let's ignore the genesis of the dragons and just get to the main part of the movie. It's grim, it's harsh and life has changed utterly. Children are taught a catechism for survival in the new era they live in. I like it when the social consequences of the apocalypse are explored and this movie started out well, with Christian Bale putting a great turn as Quinn, the leader of a relatively prosperous survivor community - they have excess grain to ferment and the children all look well nourished.
Of course things can never stay left alone and through the actions of one of the survivors - Creedy, played to good effect by Gerard Butler - the community comes under threat. A strange force turns up to "rescue" them and everything spins out of control from there. The final battle is riveting edge-of-the-seat stuff.
Wonderful atmosphere and look to the entire movie, the SFX are good and the acting is generally good. The story is, barring the "origin" hocus-pocus, well written and paced with clear characterisation. The highlight for me was seeing the destroyed skyline of London with hundreds of female dragons swarming across it as they try to escape from the increasingly berserk only male dragon.
I liked this so much that I may even go and see if I can find some fanfic for this - and I never do that!
