In the last years of Clinton administration and immediately afterwards things like nuclear holocaust, energy crisis or economic meltdown were looking very unlikely. That forced Hollywood screenwriters to be more inventive or more outrageous when devising background for post-apocalyptic films. One such idea was used for Reign of Fire, 2002 film directed by Rob Bowman.
The plot begins in London where construction team led by Karen Abercromby (played by Alice Krige), while working on new sections of London Underground, accidentally stumbles into previously hibernated giant winged creatures whose glands secret napalm-like flammable compound. Abercromby’s young son Quinn (played by Ben Thornton), unlike his mother, survives the attack of the creature only to witness how such monsters begin to quickly procreate and destroy anything in their wake, with governments and armies unable to stop them. Twenty years later adult Quinn (played by Christian Bale) is leader of small band of survivors that found shelter in old cathedral in Northumberland and had built complex of underground shelters. Forced to stay away from surface as much as possible, they suffer from famine and their numbers are thinning. Everything changes with arrival of the group of US soldiers led by charismatic Denton Van Zan (played by Matthew McConaughey). He claims that he had found a method how to destroy dragons. His assistant Alex Jensen (played by Izabella Scorupco) has noticed that the all dragons are female and hypothesises that there must be a single male dragon whose destruction would lead to the species’ extinction and thus save humanity.
Conflict mythical creatures like dragons with modern world looked a like silly idea, but the makers of this film took it seriously. An effort was made to give some sort of quasi-scientific explanation for dragons’ characteristic, as well as to show the life of surviving remnants of humanity in a convincing way. Director Rob Bowman is best known for his work on the The X-Files and his experiences in putting creatures like witches, shapeshifters and aliens into prosaic setting of the modern world. Reign of Fire also features interesting scene in which the protagonist entertains children by retelling them content of Star Wars films. The film also features a solid cast. Dependable Christian Bale is good as a leader with consciences, but the most pleasant surprise is Matthew McConaughey. An actor who was until that time often reduced to roles built around his good looks here doesn’t hesitate to play character that would make many people to cross to other side of street in order to avoid him. Bald, tattooed, with huge muscles and facial features from Lombroso’s criminology textbooks, McCounaghey’s character represents the most impressive element of Reign of Fire. His presence also provides huge contrast to Bale’s and was at the time, in months before US invasion of Iraq, interpreted as authors’ comment on international politics and widening rift between various countries. Van Zan represented American militarism and aggressiveness, while Quinn represented European pacifism as its anti-thesis.
On the other hand, Van Zan’s appearance in the film also showed the film’s main weakness. Beforehand, audience had impression of watching somewhat plausible story. Sudden appearance of character with armoured vehicles, helicopters and willing to engage in physical altercation with Quinn makes the film look too Hollywood-like. Scene in which dragons are hunted with helicopters, regardless how impressive, gives impression from stumbling into Reign of Fire by accident. Quinn’s small army, despite apparent experience and ability to survive decades under adverse conditions, gets wiped out by getting into ambush that could have been avoided by anyone reading novels by Karl May. The only purpose of that event is to give the mission of dragons’ destruction to Quinn and his followers. Van Zan’s main assistant is played by Izabella Scorupco, a fashion model that looks like she has just left the catwalk instead of spending twenty years chasing dragons. The film’s finale takes place in rundown London which, despite all CGI work, doesn’t look that frightening. In many ways, Reign of Fire looks like it was produced on modern day landfills. Just like so many 1980s post-apocalyptic films had their plots set in deserts in order to reduce their budgets, this film takes place on limited number of locations. To make things worse, promotion materials suggested film being set in 2084, while in the end plot took place in 2020. And in the end Reign of Fire gives impression of being unfinished. Despite few interesting scenes and good acting, this is a film whose authors have bitten more than they could have chewed.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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