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Just Watched REIGN OF FIRE ...

post #1 of 15
1/19/04 at 2:50am
Thread Starter 
In my almost 2 years posting here, I can't recall much discussion about the would-be epic dragon film REIGN OF FIRE ...

I'm not the biggest fan of big, effects-laden creature films ( .. or would that be effects-laden big creature films ??? ), but I was pleasantly surprised by this movie ...

a few spoilers

I am usually very leary of films in which major story/plot importance is put on the shoulders of special effects, but there were some sequences in which the dragons looked absolutely stunning ... In fact, the entire look of the film was excellent, especially the cool-but-hokey Biblical/Charleton Hestonesque way Matthew McConaughey's demise was shot ...

The film could have been an hour longer, and because what little we saw looked very good, the scenes within London could have been extended ..... Of course, there could have been more time with character development, etc, but these are giant dragons we're talking about ....

Just curious as to what everyone else thinks of this film ... Seems like it deserves a little more than the scant publicity it received ... Truth be told, I liked it better than any of the ALIEN sequels ....
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post #2 of 15
1/19/04 at 3:19am
The dragons looked fantastic especially when they were breathing fire. I too liked the whole look of the film and I thought the fight scene was very realistic. A pretty good monster flick, much better than others that received more press and higher praise.
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post #3 of 15
1/19/04 at 3:30am
I enjoyed the movie. I just wish there were more dragons in it. And I would have loved to have seen at least one big-ass battle with the humans and their tanks against a bunch of dragons. But it was not to be.

I also wish that a lot more of the movie had taken place in London instead of the countryside. The "London Ruins", with all the dragons sitting atop of the destroyed buildings was real nice to look at. Having the human survivors trying to live and fight in that city would have been a blast.

It was still a pretty good movie.
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post #4 of 15
1/19/04 at 6:57am
I gotta be the naysayer here and say I thought this flick was pretty much crap. The special effects were fine and McConaughy was giving a TCM next gen kinda crazy performance (I am convinced that man is insane) but I thought the whole thing kind of ended up flat.

I remember being really disappointed. Granted I guess I can't put it into words too well, as my distaste is all I really remember...haven't seen it since it came out. But I definately remember the "wow, that wasn't even entertaining fluff" vibe.

Maybe I had high expectations...but kinda like Underworld all I wanted was some fun and in both cases I was let down.

Also, I remember wishing they'd done more with the whole helicopter/sky diving battling the dragons more. Seemed kind of a let down when these 'experts' came in to do battle and then 'bam' it was over and they didn't even do all that great.
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post #5 of 15
1/19/04 at 7:43am
I was disappointed too. From what the trailers showed I was expecting an all out battle between dragons and people. Was pretty suprised when it skipped what could have been the best part of the film. Instead we got a ok post apocalyptic movie that could have been so much more....bah...
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post #6 of 15
1/19/04 at 8:08am
Not a bad monster flick though some of the effects were awful. The dragons apparently were able to change their size at will. But I dug the whole ROAD WARRIOR post-apocalyptic thing and McConaughy surprised the hell out of me with his GG Allin like look and attitude in this film. Bale was solid but seemed to be slumming it a bit. I heard that they replaced the original downbeat ending with the one seen in theaters after test audiences (how I hate those fuckers) complained and I'm still pissed they didn't include the cut stuff on the DVD.
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post #7 of 15
1/19/04 at 8:29am
I loved it. The dragons were the scariest ever (with the exception of the DRAGONSLAYER Vermitrax of course.) The opening sequence alone is already worth renting the movie.

I think the main reason why so many people were disappointed is because the trailer makes you believe that you're going to witness the destruction of the world and big army vs dragons battles instead of this slower-paced story. Personally I wasn't looking for ID4 so that was ok with me...
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post #8 of 15
1/19/04 at 8:41am
I thought it was a good movie. I too watched it again Sat. Night.

I liked that they built up the American Dragonslayers as this big deal, and then they were taken out with little fanfaire. Ite was a bit of a shock, especially since everyone was probably waiting for the big battle scene.


I like the look of the movie, all drab greys. If the world was covered in ash, I suppose everything would be grey.

I still don't get though, why McConnehey just jumped off of that tower...
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post #9 of 15
1/19/04 at 9:55am
I loved it when Bale and Butler were acting out The Empire Strikes Back for the kids.

Good stuff!
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post #10 of 15
1/19/04 at 2:08pm
I liked this film. I thought it was very atmospheric. As much as I don't like CGI and how flawed I think it is, I gotta admit I was pretty impressed with the work done here.
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post #11 of 15
1/19/04 at 2:08pm
I was another one of those who were disappointed with this flick when I first saw it, but one has to admit that the ads for it, and the non-floating head, theatrical poster gave you the idea that there was going to be a big ,all out,ID4-style dogfight as depicted on the poster. But later viewing of the film on cable have changed my mind on it. I might actually be thinking of picking up the DVD to this one.
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post #12 of 15
1/19/04 at 2:28pm
I enjoyed it. The dragons looked good, Matthew Mccoonaghegheyehey gave a great "crazy guy" performance and Izabella Scorupco is a mega hottie.
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post #13 of 15
1/19/04 at 3:12pm
The advertising for this movie completely cut its legs out from under it. Most people that I've talked to never even saw a preview for it and those who did, as mentioned above, thought it was going to be completely different than it was.

I absolutely enjoyed this movie for all the reasons previously mentioned. As everyone has said, the CG was pretty amazing and I liked all of the performances as well. Just a well made movie IMO.

I remember hearing talk of a sequel quite a while ago - has that died or is there still some movement?
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post #14 of 15
1/19/04 at 4:05pm
Some great CG and art, some good ideas, and a few great scenes, but overall I thought this was just ok.
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post #15 of 15
1/19/04 at 6:46pm

Sequel

Disney disbanded the effects house that did this movie after it was finished. AICN did a write up with one of the guys that did some of the work. They should make a prequel.
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