*** Official "REIGN OF FIRE" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stone]

Yah...it get's a recommendation from me too. A good monster movie, that is serious. I really liked that big-ass male dragon...there were some great CG shots there.

 

[LennyP]

I've just seen it. Trailers said something along the lines of "The arsenal has been assembled" etc, like there was going to be a whole war, and I expected something more massive as well. I agree that it lacks in bigger action scenes and would love to see a dark prequel that ends bad that shows what happened between 2007 and 2020.
Still, special effects are GREAT, impressed me as much as and didn't look fake at all like in Blade Runner. All the recent CGI SFX suck, plus all you people bitching that they didn't show dragons enough, well if they did you'd lose interest in them by the middle of the movie, but here you wish to see them and don't get enough. Otherwise if they were on the screen every second it'd just numb you down and wouldn't be so exciting.
I'm also glad there are only 2 jokes in the whole movie and it's very gloomy and takes itself seriously indeed and has a very dramatic tone, it works for the better.
It does have a grand scope of epic proportions but again, we all want to see more destruction, more bigger battles. I really hope this movie does well so that we get another. I've never seen a dragon movie, I don't think there are any good ones besides this.

 

[Reni D]

I Saw the movie last night and to tell you the truth I had high hopes for this movie.But I agree that the movie had a great idea but felt short. I would have loved to see more of what happened during the time of 2007 and 2020. Instead of having a 5 minute scene explaining what happened during that period.In my op ion the movie should have concentrated during those years. Never the less the movie was still pretty entertaining.

 

[Julie K]

Well, I was disappointed. As I said in the review thread, I thought there was a serious problem in the underlying logic. On one hand we have nearly indestructible dragons who can easily tear down civilization and lay waste to the planet. On the other hand we have some clever flying beasts who can be killed with low tech. I simply cannot ignore the problems with a movie that combines those two ideas. If I believe the beginning of the movie, the end does not work. If I believe the end of the movie, the beginning does not work.

The dragons are really good though. I would have loved to see them tear down civilization. The time frame that this movie skimmed over was the best part, IMO.

 

[Patrick Sun]

During the movie, I did find myself nitpicking many details, which I list below, but after a while, I just sat back and enjoyed it as much as possible because those dragons kicked some ass.
Lots of spoilers below!
Nitpicks and observations (many are the same as Julie K's from her review):
1. Fuel - where do the Americans come up with the fuel to go travelling all over western Europe in helicopters and tanks? Did they hope they'd find pockets of fuel along the way? How far could they go on one fill-up otherwise (a short trip for sure)?
2. I can understand the lack of F-15's, and other conventional military planes, etc if the dragon did overwhelm the earth all over by burning it to the ground to produce the ash they needed to survive.
3. When did the Americans have time to work out and get all muscled up?
4. I'll make allowances for Izabella Scorupco's make-up, she's purty. She did lose her "Kentucky" accent from the start of the film to the end of it.
5. Loved the male dragon getting all pissed off and burning down Quinn's "tower".
6. It was rather convenient for all of the other female dragons to be out of London when the trio decided to take out the male dragon.
7. Dragon vision could have been shown better (plus they should have shown a decrease in visual acuity when it started to go into twilight "magic" hour (which the trio didn't really get to use to attack since the male was already hunting them). It's like why talk about Magic Hour is it's not going to come into play.
8. Too bad the doctor from DS9 didn't have much to do in this film beside monitor the radio.
9. What was Quinn going to do with that dragon's egg? That's a loose end.
10. Why didn't the dragons attack the tower in the past? Just hadn't gotten to it?

 

[Julie K]

2. I can understand the lack of F-15's, and other conventional military planes

My problem wasn't with the lack of them in the time that this drama took place but with the apparent lack of them when the dragons awoke. The dragons seemed to be able to be killed pretty easily. I think they would be toast (hah hah) against modern fighter jets. The dragons aren't very maneuverable and didn't seem to fly very fast. If I'm supposed to believe that they can be killed with harpoons and explosive tipped arrows, then it just boggles my mind that a squad of F-15s couldn't have taken out bunches of them when they first appeared. After all that talk about magic hour and dragon vision, the heros managed to kill them easily without it.

And why are the dragons 'starving' if they can eat ash?

How does killing the male dragon lead immediately to a decrease of all dragons?

If dragons are like fish (? - talk about bizarre moments in a film) then why assume there's only one male dragon? In the fish species where there are males, there are certainly quite a few eagerly waiting to fertilize any eggs that a female might feel like releasing.

And if dragons are truly like fish then when the dominant male is killed then, like in some fish species, the dominant female will change sex and take his place.

I found the idea of only one male dragon and no mechanism to replace to be a little too fishy to believe.

I don't normally nitpick such movies to death, but this movie was meant to be taken seriously and so the filmmakers should have taken a little more care with its plot and underlying logic.

Loved the male dragon tearing down the church/tower. I thought that was the best part of the movie, even though I did wonder why he hadn't done that before. If the dragons are starving why do they ignore those tasty bipeds?

 

[Alex Spindler]

On the military planes, my take was that they had killed many of them, but the quantity of dragons just overwhelmed them. Plus, there is every indication that the dragons would have tracked them back to their base and razed it. I don't remember the dialogue but it was something along the lines of, "For every one we killed, three more would come back".

Again, I didn't nitpick this movie either, but the following is a real problem.
The movie opens with the release of the male dragon. He escapes and starts reproducing. Where did he get the eggs to reproduce? The only way the movie works if the male dragon starts female, lays and egg, and then spontaneously change to male to fertilize that egg. That opens the doorway for a new male to arrive (as others have stated).

I wonder if they find ash easier to breathe than normal air? They still seem to need to eat, so maybe their activities are a bizarre form of terraforming?

An interesting movie, but not the fuel for a sleeper hit that I was hoping for. Still, it's far better than MIB2 for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Patrick Sun]

It could be that people weren't willing to let F-15s bomb the hell out of London (and other cities) when the dragons first starting appearing. Man's pride in what they created outweighed their miscalculations, giving the dragons enough time to produce enough dragons to overwhelm the cities, thus man did not use their weapons at their disposal in a timely manner, and were over-run by the sheer ferocity of fire-breathing dragons.
So...how many of those lady dragons turned lesbian afterwards?

 

[Brian_J]

Well, I was disappointed. As I said in the review thread, I thought there was a serious problem in the underlying logic. On one hand we have nearly indestructible dragons who can easily tear down civilization and lay waste to the planet. On the other hand we have some clever flying beasts who can be killed with low tech. I simply cannot ignore the problems with a movie that combines those two ideas. If I believe the beginning of the movie, the end does not work. If I believe the end of the movie, the beginning does not work.

I actually thought the movie dealt with this. They indicated that the shear initial quantity of dragons was what was the problem. Later, as the dragons have obliterated everything they are starving, and they are dying. Now there is a more maneagable number...But, they are NOT by any means easy to kill. Quinn gets pretty lucky with that shot over the ridge and I don't see them killing a whole bunch of dragons at the rate of three humans per dragon...which is why they realize they have to go for the male.

My only issue is that the male has Napalm and can wipe out everything within a 300-yard radius...until the very end, when his breath seems much more concentrated on a small area. I guess its the "majic hour"

Brian

 

[Andy Sheets]

But, they are NOT by any means easy to kill. Quinn gets pretty lucky with that shot over the ridge and I don't see them killing a whole bunch of dragons at the rate of three humans per dragon...which is why they realize they have to go for the male.

Yeah, I thought it was also implied by the comment about hitting them when they rear back that the dragons were basically indestructible from every angle except the underbelly. It fits with most dragon stories in that way.
I thought it was a very solid movie. I think it'll have some trouble because it had an "A" marketing campaign but it's really a B-movie. You can see it's relatively low budget by its limited scale. Taken within its limitations, though, I think it's cool. We definitely need more summer movies like this, with the fresh ideas and the straight tone, although I agree with the criticisms that it could have a *bit* more humor. Just not the "check us out. We're making a summer movie!" kind of humor

 

[Patrick Sun]

[british accent]All the humour was soaked up by Quinn when he was just a young lad of 12 years of age at the beginning of the film, wouldn't you say?[/british accent]

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I guess I'm in the minority but I loved the film. While I can see the problems such as the lack of fuel for the American vehicles, the film succeeded in suspending my disbelief so that I didn't care to try and find whatever faults, such as the fuel, that there were.

I also liked the film's smaller scope. Besides keeping unnecessary strain off of the FX, it kept the focus tuned into the main characters.

 

[Seth Paxton]

1. Fuel - where do the Americans come up with the fuel to go travelling all over western Europe in helicopters and tanks? Did they hope they'd find pockets of fuel along the way? How far could they go on one fill-up otherwise (a short trip for sure)?

I'll tell you, I kept expecting an explanation of "milking" all the dragons they killed with some clever filtering process or re-engineering of the engines to run on dragon fuel.

Of course that never happened.

I also assumed that the people were holed up around some oil refinery/power generator, which would make sense in terms of where people would run to and which ones would have the resources to survive to the point that the movie starts.

 

[Seth Paxton]

On the male/female thing - I assumed that there was more than one dragon in hibernation when they stumbled into them. A male and one or more females.

But with all the nukes wouldn't it seem likely that sooner or later they would have killed the male by sheer chance, especially if the battles began around London.


If only the last act or so had a better objective/solution.

 

[Matt Wooten]

i saw this movie friday night and i must say i did not get down on it like the majority of you did. i thought it was OKAY but not worth my 7.50. as with alot of people i felt the best part of the movie was skipped over.. the attack of the dragons on the world and our attack back. i couldn't help but burst out laughing. (i was the only one in a crowded theater and of course got a look from all the heart-broken young females) im thinking.. "now that is realistic". ah hell i don't know what im rambling about anymore.. i still say MIB2 was better.

 

[Malcolm R]

I didn't understand this either. And why did the male suddenly decide to fly the 80 miles or so from London to finally burn the castle? The way it was set up, they made it seem like some sort of "revenge" for the killing of the female.
Pretty good film. I was hoping for more air-to-air combat and more dragons, though. And I thought the film's ending was quite rushed. They seemed to be in London only a matter of minutes before they'd despatched the male and it was all over.
Funny how everyone agrees that the best part of the story, the years in which dragons overran the earth, isn't the story they filmed. Cost prohibitive perhaps? It would require a lot more special effects and CGI shots. Doesn't seem like it's going to be a huge moneymaker, so I'd say chances of a sequel/prequel are sort of low. :frowning:

 

[Patrick Sun]

I was thinking somehow that egg that Quinn "rescued" might be a way to give us another sequel. There was no followup to that scene at all.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I couldn't understand how the helicopter was allowed to fly in so close to the city and land without encountering any dragon resistance when there seemed to be so many around.

Yeah, that was a major fault IMO.

The day before the male ambushed them way outside the city (60 miles away), yet now they cruise on in close enough to walk. Come on.

Just one more example where it fell apart down the stretch.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I was thinking somehow that egg that Quinn "rescued" might be a way to give us another sequel. There was no followup to that scene at all.

Another thing I forgot about. What WAS up with that??

Definately needed a 2nd half rewrite or two. So close to being great though with the direction they started in (even without the fleshed out early stuff).

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

i still say MIB2 was better.

Boy, do I disagree with that or what! I would prefer to watch Reign of Fire 10 times in a row before seeing MIB 2 again.