Reign Of Fire UMD-Video For PSP Review

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Title: Reign Of Fire: UMD-Video For PSP

Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, Izabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler, Alice Krige, and Siddig El Fadil

Writers: Gregg Chabot Kevin Peterkam and Matt Greenberg

Based On A Story By: Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterkam

Director: Rob Bowman

Feature length: 102 minutes

Extras: Featurettes and Trailers

Languages: English and French Language Stereo Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 11

Sound: Stereo Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2002/UMD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Touchstone Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Dragons are real. They have been responsible for several mass extinctions throughout the history of the world. They wiped out the dinosaurs and the resulting ashes left in their wake caused the ice ages of Earth’s geologic history. Their life cycle concludes by leaving thousands of unfertilized eggs behind with one lone alpha male, which goes into hibernation until the Earth replenishes itself or until someone or something disrupts their lengthy sleeping stasis. In the late 21^st century dragons have ravaged the landscape. A group of surviving humans have formed a community upon the scarred countryside outside of London. Their lone hope is to outlast the dragons who have all but destroyed the ecological balance and as a result have become more dangerous as their hunger causes them to even feed even upon each other. The leader of this community (Christian Bale) was present when the first dragon woke after being uncovered at a London Underground construction site. He witnessed the death of his mother (Alice Krige), who sacrificed herself to save her son as the beast crept up to the surface to begin its “Reign Of Fire.”

Then a group of hardened militia from America led by (Matthew McConaughey) arrives with an agenda. Recruit as many people as they can to go after the alpha male. After demonstrating a system for killing dragons, several members of the community follow the militia to London where nearly all are dispatched effortlessly by the lead dragon who then attacks the community, proving that an open attack and a hide and wait them out plan are not viable options for defeating this threat. So our community leader, the militia leader, and a surviving chopper pilot go out on a last ditch effort to slay the male at magic hour when the creature is at it’s most vulnerable. If they fail, this could be the twilight of mankind as they know it, cremated in dragon’s flames.

Gerard Butler (Dracula 2000, Attila) and Siddig El Fadil (Star Trek: Deep Space 9) also appear in the film. The dragons are among the best looking ever created for a theatrical feature film with a conscious call back to the early 1980s Disney and Paramount co-production, “Dragonslayer.” My only caveat is that they all look the same. A few different colors and styles of dragon would have made the film more interesting as well as explain why there are so many variations on what dragons look like and maybe cultures differ on how they behave. Perhaps some dragons could be more dangerous than others and maybe some are not necessarily as destructive as others. What if some were relatively docile unless provoked? Granted no one wants to see friendly dragons unless Sean Connery is doing the voice (and even then), but I’m not typing about talking dragons. I do think some variations on the design would have at least made the dragon sequences more visually stimulating. As it is, they look like a bunch of CGI generated clones of various sizes used over and over again and ultimately detract from the film’s production value.

“Reign Of Fire” is an interesting blend of post apocalyptic sci-fi mixed with a bit of fantasy and calls to mind the stories of dragon slayers from folklore and Hollywood of course. The film has a monochromatic look to it, which the UMD displays quite capably with bursts or red and orange breaking through the grays and browns. Buena Vista Home Entertainment presents “Reign Of Fire” in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with a choice of English or French Language Stereo Sound and English Subtitles encoded as an option too.

Two bonus featurettes from the DVD release are included on the UMD version too. “Breathing Life Into The Terror – The Making Of The Dragons” covers the CGI development of the beasts for the film and the challenges of directing the actors on location with creatures that have to be matched in later. “Conversations With Director Rob Bowman” is a videotaped interview where Bowman briefly discusses his interest in making genre films and how he got involved with “The X-Files” as well as his passion for that series and the subsequent feature film he directed. He also goes into the challenges faced in making a film with realistic and scary dragons. While I think the dragons look great and I liked the film for what it was, I did not find “Reign Of Fire” to be a “scary movie.”

Before the “Breathing Life Into Terror” featurette, a letterboxed version of the “Reign Of Fire” trailer appears and a widescreen trailer for “Dark Water” as well as a (1.33:1) trailer for “ALIAS: The Complete Third Season” are included on the UMD-Video too. The menus are fully animated with motion scene selections and all are easy to navigate. “Reign Of Fire” is available on UMD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

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