Another I meant to see this at the cinema, but never got round to it' movie. You know the ones. Men in Black II, Resident Evil, the kind of films that pique your curiosity enough to think that you would like to see them, but not enough to get off your arse and into the theatre. And you always get them on video and think god that was lame. Im glad I didn't bother going to see that'.
Funnily enough, although Reign of Fire was kind of lame, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I was going to. The films main problem is that hoary old issue of suspension of disbelief. You just find yourself saying `yeah, right' too many times to immerse yourself in the filmic experience. (spoilers ahoy) Why did the best brains in the world not figure out something that a chopper pilot could? How could a whole species of millions sprout from a single male dragon? How did he spread his seed all over the world? Where did the female dragons come from if the first and only dragon was male? I could go on and if you watch this movie, you will too. It just seems that a whole heap of the films plot was left on the editing floor.
However, what is left is a decent bit of action hokum. Bales weird cockney accent is suitably gruff and Matthew McGarnacle is (unintentionally) hilarious as Van Zan. The special effects are used fairly sparingly, but are very good. The story itself is reasonably inventive and the dialogue was suitably anglicised.
Overall, not surprisingly considering the hideous bashing it took on release, ROF is a pretty underrated popcorner. It is fun and a decent excuse to sit back and turn your brain off. Although I had very high hopes for this (all the lack of action' criticisms wrongly led to me believing it would be significantly more cerbral) I was only moderately let down.
Oh yeah. It has the best star wars joke I have seen in a veeeeeeeery long time.
Funnily enough, although Reign of Fire was kind of lame, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I was going to. The films main problem is that hoary old issue of suspension of disbelief. You just find yourself saying `yeah, right' too many times to immerse yourself in the filmic experience. (spoilers ahoy) Why did the best brains in the world not figure out something that a chopper pilot could? How could a whole species of millions sprout from a single male dragon? How did he spread his seed all over the world? Where did the female dragons come from if the first and only dragon was male? I could go on and if you watch this movie, you will too. It just seems that a whole heap of the films plot was left on the editing floor.
However, what is left is a decent bit of action hokum. Bales weird cockney accent is suitably gruff and Matthew McGarnacle is (unintentionally) hilarious as Van Zan. The special effects are used fairly sparingly, but are very good. The story itself is reasonably inventive and the dialogue was suitably anglicised.
Overall, not surprisingly considering the hideous bashing it took on release, ROF is a pretty underrated popcorner. It is fun and a decent excuse to sit back and turn your brain off. Although I had very high hopes for this (all the lack of action' criticisms wrongly led to me believing it would be significantly more cerbral) I was only moderately let down.
Oh yeah. It has the best star wars joke I have seen in a veeeeeeeery long time.