Reign of Fire (2002)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2002
	Director: Rob Bowman (The X files, Elektra)
	Actors: Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe, Contact), Christian Bale (American Psycho, The Dark Knight trilogy), Izabella Scorupco (Goldeneye)
	Country: USA, IRL
	Genre: Fantasy, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 30.06.2015, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Construction works for the London Tube awaken a dragon that will spawn thousands more and transform the planet into a world of ash. Some humans surviving hidden in a medieval castle, led by Quinn (Bale) will be joined by a remaining section of the US Army led by Van Zan (McConaughey).
Review: I remember being very excited before the release of this movie back in 2002: realistic dragons in a post-apocalyptic world they created, and a handful of humans struggling for survival, what more could I ask! I was then disappointed at the result because I found at the time that there was not enough dragon action. This disturbed me less this time, as I realize now that this was probably due to a limited budget (half of the special effects indeed look cheap and worthy of a B-movie). The filmmakers preferred to focus on a few ultra-iconic dragon scenes rather than showing too much of the poorly-rendered beasts, which is not a bad thing after all. And those few scenes are in fact impressive: the awakening, attack on the castle, attack on the convoy, the flight above London, Van Zan and his axe (see some pictures at the end of this post). I love the idea of people hiding from a dragon in a medieval castle, the contrast between those survivors and the US army guys, and a bald and bearded Matthew McConaughey hard to recognize and playing his character with passion. Not so bad after all.
Rating: 6 /10