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Movie review - Reign of Fire

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.10.2008

I just saw the movie Reign of Fire. Originally I wanted to see it because:

(a) dragons
(b) Matthew McConaughey
(c) Gerard Butler
(d) Christian Bale

See, I have my priorities straight. :)

It’s an Apocalyptic speculative fiction movie, and I was very surprised at how solid the storyline was. It had a great premise—dragons are real, and in fact feed on the ash from burnt organic material. They are the ones who destroyed the dinosaurs and caused the first ice age. When they started to starve from burning the earth up, they went into hibernation under the ground until the earth recovered.

The movie opens in present day London, where a boy’s mother is in charge of an underground tunneling project. They hit a pocket and awaken the first dragon. Over the years, the dragons overran humanity until only a few small communities live scattered over the world, trying to survive.

Then Matthew McConaughey comes, an American ex-military leader, who knows how to kill the dragons.

The story is a little complex and I had to listen carefully to figure out what was going on at times. The British accents of some of the cast were also hard to follow at some points. But on a whole, I really liked the story, the actors, and the special effects.

Has anyone else seen this? What did you think? I can’t possibly be the only one who likes dragons. And Matthew. And Gerard. And Christian. :)

Comments

Deborah said…
Dragons over Christian Bale? Boo!!
Leslie said…
Camy it took you this long to see it?! I used to have the DVD poster for it (I also used to work at Blockbuster).

I actually have it in my netflix queue because its been so long since I've seen it that I wanted to see it again.

What I always thought was funny is how "butch" Matthew McCanoaughey looked in the movie - he's still pretty to look at - but not quite as pretty.

As for Gerard Butler - I don't remember him being in it - it must have been one of his first movies (that or I didn't know who he was at the time).
Danielle said…
Yessss!! I found this one languishing on the shelves at Blockbuster and I was like, "Wha? How come I've never heard of this movie??"

I was totally impressed with it and loved the whole storyline. I am a big fan of Christian Bale and sometimes like Matthew McConnaughey... he was good in this one. And Gerard Butler didn't have quite a huge enough part for my liking... :)

Awesome movie.
Karen said…
All very good reasons to like this movie! I haven't seen in it a very long time; sounds like I need to put it back in my Blockbuster.com queue. I know my boys would like it.
Anonymous said…
Camy, I think your reasoning for seeing this movie are very sound. I've added Reign of Fire to my Netflix queue.

Regarding thick accents that make some movies hard to understand, I have learned to turn on the English captioning when I get a movie like that. Makes a huge difference in my enjoyment of the movie.

Robin
Danica Favorite said…
I guess I 'll have to add this to the must-see list.
Camy Tang said…
Deborah, do I get kudos that they're on the same list? ;)

This is definitely a movie worth watching and re-watching.

Oh, and Captain Caffeine just rolled his eyes when he saw the DVD come from Netflix. LOL

Camy
Camy Tang said…
Robin, I tried that but got annoyed with it. So I turn it off, but if someone says something I totally don't understand, I go back into the menu, turn it on, and watch the segment with it on, then turn it off again.

Camy
Melissa said…
I vaguely remember watching it, but I had to go back to Netflix to see what I rated it (2 stars). I remember finding myself very distracted by MM with no shirt on, but couldn't really follow the plot (if there was one)
catslady said…
I've not heard of it but it sounds like something I'd like - I'm going to try to remember to look for it!
Anonymous said…
That's our "traditional" Thanksgiving movie around here. We love it!
Anonymous said…
SOOOO have to see this movie!!!! Matthew, Gerard, AND Christian all in the same movie!!! (drooling).

Diane

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