Reign of Fire

In 2020, the remnants of humanity struggle with a species of fire-breathing dragon that comes out of hiding every few million years to conquer the world. Written by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg and directed with frenzied vigor by Rob Bowman, the film is all special effects and testosteronic bellowing by Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale as two leaders with different approaches to coping with the monsters; what little story the script contains is confined to Bale’s voice-over narration in the first 10 minutes, as a montage of newspaper and magazine clippings shows the dragons taking over. Now that might have made an interesting movie, but the movie’s budget probably dictated setting it in the wilderness of Northern England so all the money could go into the dragons.