Review – Reign of Fire

Here’s a novel idea: a dragon movie set in the sci-fi future rather than the fantasy past. Funny thing is, it kinda works. The premise is that dragons have been awakened from an eons-old slumber and have taken over the world. Or to be more precise, they’ve turned the surface of the earth into ash and eaten everything (apparently if you’re a dragon ash tastes pretty good). By the time 2020 rolls around, humanity is down to small enclaves – the group in this story is in England, appropriately enough – hiding out and waiting for the beasts to starve and/or go back into hibernation. Naturally along comes an American to lead them against the sole male monster who turns out to be the key to the infestation. Despite a strong similarity to the bad guy in Dragonslayer, the monsters work well. If you can get past some of the obvious plot holes (for example, why is it that millions of sharp-eyed, flying creatures can’t find and devour even small enclaves of humans?) this is an entertaining and subtly environmentalist production. Mildly amusing