Plot: What’s it about?
There aren’t a lot of movies about dragons out there. In more recent times, pardon the pun, there are only a handful that come to mind. Sure, we all think of Puff, but that’s a cartoon (then again, seeing as how dragons aren’t real, could a cartoon be just as accurate as the “real” thing)? Dennis Quaid’s movie Dragonheart (featuring the voice of Sean Connery as the “last” dragon) was a flop as was the recent (and the name most associated with the word dragon) Dungeons & Dragons, based on the popular role-playing game of the 80’s. So now director Rob Bowman, of X-Files fame, has taken his look a the world of dragons from a somewhat different perspective, in that what if they were still alive in modern times and were discovered? The future looks bleak, according to the film, but with “tough guy” actors Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale headlining the film, would this help the story at all or not?
I don’t know. I have to admit that when I saw the trailers for this film, I wasn’t too excited, come to think of it, movies (both good and bad) come to DVD so fast, I hardly have time to make it out to the theater anymore. But there is a plot to the film and it’s not quite as bad as you might think. We meet Quinn (Christian Bale) as he is just a youngster. Living in London, they are in the midst of a tunneling project only to unearth a dragon that has been living there for who knows how long. The trick is that the dragon feeds on ash, and as dragons breathe fire, essentially everything they encounter ends up in this form. Quinn witnesses the death of his mother, a worker in the tunneling project and as we leap forward in time, he has now become a “Fire Chief”. The dragons have taken over the Earth, flying about and feeding on the ashes everywhere. This can’t be however, as there would be no point to the movie. It’s then that we meet Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) with his pack of soldiers. Van Zan, aside from having a cool-sounding name that rhymes, drives a tank and will stop at no cost to see that the humans take back the Earth as they know it. Knowing all of this, what do you think happens?
Reign of Fire wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought, I’m certainly not a fan of the genre by any means, but this is good for a rainy day (the fire on screen will counter act any feelings of gloom that you might be encountering). The leads live up to their namesake and if any females are in the audience, there’s a lot of male flesh to be seen. But the film is obviously geared towards a younger, male-oriented crowd that want to see two tough guys kick some dragon ass! This is almost a polar opposite of the X-Files movie and I’ve got to admit that I’ve never seen a full episode of the television show, so I have no basis for comparison here. Reign of Fire, while a tad bit predictable, is very entertaining. It bucked the system when so many of us are watching Spider-Man or awaiting more X-Men to fulfill our urges for a fantasy/action-adventure movie, this fit the ticket real nicely. Fans of the genre will undoubtedly be impressed with what’s going on screen. As for me, I’ll probably watch it again sometime, if only to see some cool fire-breathing dragons.
Video: How does it look?
Disney has been doing a bang up job on their Blu-ray titles, giving them the deluxe treatment and “Reign of Fire” is certainly no exception. This MPEG-4/AVC HD transfer is top notch and I’m going to tell you why. For review purposes, I broke out my old standard DVD of this movie and compared the two. Right off the bat, I noticed more depth and color to this Blu-ray version. Naturally, detail is bumped up a few notches and edge enhancement is a thing of the past. There aren’t a lot of bright colors to this film, in fact it’s most prevalent colors are browns and reds (never two colors that look good on screen). I will say that it would have been easy, almost excusable, for the transfer to be less than stellar but this is where the movie excels. Little details, like the grids in a fence or the hairs on Matthew McConaughey’s shaved head really stood out. Suffice it to say that if you like the way the movie looked before, you’ll love it now.
Audio: How does it sound?
Disney has also served up a PCM uncompressed soundtrack in addition to the Dolby Digital 5.1 included on this disc. As I mentioned in my recent review of “Ladder 49”, there’s really nothing that sounds as good as fire when it comes to surround sound. And hey – wouldn’t you know it – dragons breathe fire! All kidding aside, the track is robust with some good special effects and some pretty decent ambiance from beginning to ending. Dialogue is rich and clear as well. There’s not really one particular scene that stands out as being better than another, but it’s a compilation of several good battle scenes and the uncompressed sound makes each one a great listening experience.
Supplements: What are the extras?
All of the exact same supplements that were on the previous standard DVD have made the cut here. There’s no new material save the “Movie Showcase” that Disney includes on all of their Blu-ray titles. The featutrettes are good, though, that focus on how the dragons were made for the film (“Breathing Life into the Terror”); and a very informative featurette on the pyrotechnics of the film (“If you can’t stand the heat”). Lastly, there is a conversation with the Director, Rob Bowman. Bowman tells of his motivations to make the movie, how it fared,etc. A good featurette that shows how much he cared about the project.
