Reign of Fire

Rated a Connor 10, normal 9

This apocalyptic tale of dragons that destroy mankind falls short. I would have rather seen the actual war between the dragons and all of mankind. Instead we see a small community plus a rag-tag band of dragon hunters clash over whether to simply survive or go down swinging against the dragons. Now I realize a full scale battle over the Earth is going to be a little more costly movie budget-wise than what we got for a finished product so let's point out the good stuff we did get. The best thing about "Reign of Fire" is the insanity of Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan. His confrontation near the end of the movie with a mighty dragon is one for the ages. He brings an intensity to Van Zan that Christian Bale can't hold a candle to playing his character Quinn. The direction by Rob Bowman is decent and it does look a good bit like many of the "X-Files" episodes he helmed. The special effects are above average CGI especially the final clash with the boss dragon. The rest of the movie is mildly entertaining but it's nothing that will stick with you for very long.