Dragon Ballsy
For centuries, Western philosophy has interpreted the dragon as a symbol of explosive violence. The notion that the basilisk is born to be slain is rather one-sided, but storytellers summoning such creatures can count on a passionate rise from their audience — which is why Reign of Fire has built-in appeal. Who wouldn’t want to watch the last bastion of humanity struggling against an Armageddon-wave of dragons?
This isn’t Pete’s Dragon. By 2020, the foul things have snuffed out most of civilization. (That the beasts are employed to splendid metaphorical effect may be lost on viewers perceiving nothing but an action romp.) In a prologue set in the present day, we accompany a cheeky little boy into an underground London rail project spearheaded by his mum. A fire-breathing dragon is released, which kills the mum. A beautifully executed montage of fiery images from newspaper and magazine clippings follows the seemingly invulnerable, rapidly multiplying dragons through a devastating two-decade global rampage.
The charred wastes of Northumberland make up the setting for most of our action as we meet the same boy, Quinn (Christian Bale), grown into the whiskered leader-by-default of a fortified castle stronghold. Quinn shoulders the unenviable burden of keeping his small community alive while sporadic dragon visits toast those who opt for freedom beyond the gates. The place is a hybrid of a gothic bomb shelter and a high school in a bad neighborhood.
The arrival of Kentucky-born soldier of fortune Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) shakes things up. A practitioner of old-school frontier justice amped by new-school technology, the ripped, tattooed good ol’ boy — his name may as well have been Red Nek — brings his troops inside the compound. Quinn is doubtful of his guests (“The only thing worse than a dragon,” he mutters, “Americans”), but a helicopter pilot named Alexandra (Izabella Scorupco, Vertical Limit) helps convince him that perhaps they can actually kill the dragons — and follow up with some postapocalyptic whoopee.
There are a couple of sensational action sequences in Reign of Fire, but director Rob Bowman (The X-Files) keeps us trained mostly on the bewildered humans. The script (by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg) is tight and tidy, with the dragons’ impressive presence limited to key sequences.
Besides, despite its stylistic lifts from Red Dawn, The Road Warrior, the Big Apple dragon flick Q (which also features a lead character called Quinn) and the Alien movies, Reign of Fire is only peripherally about fantastic happenings. Doubters of the story’s metaphorical resonance — intentional or otherwise — need only consider this: All the dragons attacking Quinn’s world are female; the only way he can survive as a man is to find and destroy their big, nasty sugar daddy.
