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First of all I have to say that the trailer lied. But don’t get me wrong, it was a beautiful lie. The kind of lie your parents told you at Christmastime that got you all sorts of excited about the gift you dreamed you would get. Then on Christmas morning you opened it up and it wasn’t what you thought you were getting. It was something totally different, but instead was much, much cooler. That’s Reign of Fire. This is not a balls out action film with thinly painted, two dimensional characters driven by special effects and explosions. Oh, there are plenty of bad assed special effects and explosions, but the trailer failed to give us even a glimpse of who these characters were. These are not traditional action movie stereotypes placed in the film to link one special effect to another. Instead they are richly drawn, finely crafted characters full of emotion, pain, angst and suffering, dealing with a dying world and their place in extinction. Reign of Fire is first and foremost a movie about heroes, their goals and desires and how these goals clash with one another under tremendous pressure. Christian Bale gives the physically strongest and most virile performance of his career, proving he can easily play the textured characters he’s accustomed to while blowing @#%$ up. He’s fantastically charismatic in this role and even when you think he’s doing the wrong thing, you support him because you understand his reasons. He makes an excellent hero and does a fine job with this. The real story here, however, is Matthew McConaughey. Dear Christ Almighty, son! Where the hell have you been? Anyone out there with any doubt in their mind as to McConaughey’s ability to be a heroic leading man needs to look no further than Reign of Fire. Dear God, this man simply kicks unholy ass of all kinds in this role. Imagine if you will Han Solo, mixed with a healthy dose of R. Lee Emery in Full metal Jacket, pumped up on so many steroids that his body has become pure muscle and his brain only knows anger, hate and aggression. And then imagine him kicking dragon ass. That’s Matthew McConaughey in Reign of Fire. He is sheer, undaunted, @#%$ masculinity. From the moment he appears out of his tank he is captivating, being both absolutely detestable and positively heroic at the same time. He is a man on a mission and that mission is clear. Every single little drop of the good ol’ boy McConaughey is gone, sucked out and replaced by pure, unfiltered testosterone. Not once during the film are you reminded of his prior roles. No pot references or bongo jokes spring to mind. These things fade away into the deep recesses of your memory while you watch McConaughey blow everybody off of the screen. There are even moments where you’d rather watch what he’s doing than gawk at the amazing dragons. Oh, yes. I didn’t forget the dragons. After all, that’s why you’ve convinced yourselves to see this. All of you Bale hate-a’s and McConaughey loathers have convinced yourselves (and all of your friends) that that’s the only reason you’ll pay to see those two on the screen. Believe me, I know. I’ve listened to you bitch for months. So you wanna know about the dragons, right? Well, these are hands down the absolute best special effects I have seen in years. I’m actually to the point where I don’t believe they’re computer generated. I believe that whole making of documentary is a sham, a diversion to draw our attention away from the fact that Disney has genetically bred, raised and trained real dragons for the making of this film. They look way too god damned real to be CG. I mean, how does this happen? Episode 2 looked CG. Spider-man looked CG. Hell, Angelina Jolie looks CG. So how does something this realistic seem to come out of nowhere? Why doesn’t everything else CG look this @#%$ cool? Why? Because The Secret Lab special effects company did these dragons. And my hat is off to them. Boys, you done good. I absolutely cannot wait to see what you guys come up with next. Sorry, George. Looks like you’re gonna get shafted out of that special effects Oscar again. These dragons @#%$ rule. There is no way to describe them without foul expletives. They are the meanest looking, most realistic, vile creatures ever brought to the screen. Simply put, they will astound you. You will be mesmerized, jaw agape, and marvel at their presence. They were well worth the 21 year wait for another bad assed dragon film. The art direction of this film is just fantastic. The obliterated England, the costumes, the weapons. Every single bit of it put me in a burnt out husk of a world awaiting salvation from the dragon menace. And Rob Bowman’s direction is top notch. His is the talent summer blockbusters are made from. Massive kudos to Rob for his work here. The seamless interaction between the actors and their CG counterparts is a thing of beauty. Everything is brilliantly put together to put us, the audience, in the thick of the action, to stare down the dragons with Bale and McConaughey. Rob Bowman has a big career ahead of him if he keeps taking smart scripts like this one. This film is an amazing effort. Now comes the sad part of the review, the part in which I must share the few minor flaws this film has. The first, the most inane and the only thing to actually bother me while watching the film was a slight difference between the trailer and the film. Remember when Matthew McConaughey gives that rousing speech in the trailer? “There’s nothing magical about them. They’re made of flesh and blood. You take out the heart, you bring down the beast!” Well, it’s a little different in the film, but it’s so much weaker than the trailer cut. I mean MUCH weaker. It works for the film and the character, but GOD I wanted to hear that speech so bad in all its glory and it just didn’t happen. Sad, but forgivable. I still have the trailer and I will still shout right along with it, just as I have for months. The only other real flaw is in the pacing. This movie just doesn’t deliver all the OOOMPH that it should in certain, select scenes. The final sequences in particular seem to end just a little too abruptly. We’re left wanting just a little more.