By Drew Dietsch
| Revealed
Hey everybody, Drew Dietsch right here once more for Big Freakin Robotic, and this time I get to speak about one thing I really like that I’ve by no means gotten to focus on earlier than: dragons!
Ever since I learn The Hobbit and watched the 1977 animated adaptation (nonetheless my favourite model of Smaug), I’ve been enamored with these ferocious fantasy creatures.
A lot so, I even watched The Flight of Dragons, the place John Ritter makes use of logic to defeat a multi-headed evil dragon sorcerer voiced by Darth Vader.
And my technology was primed to get dragon fever due to the blockbuster manufacturing DragonHeart being so successful.
However earlier than the dragon market obtained monopolized by HBO, there was one other dragon film I used to be excited for in my youth.
And this one regarded prefer it could possibly be the most effective severe illustration of dragons ever in a significant movement image as much as that time.
However this film was nowhere close to the success of DragonHeart and stays a cult favourite at finest.
We’re going to sift by way of the ashes to search out out why Reign of Hearth failed.
Like lots of authentic high-concept tales, Reign of Hearth existed as a script for years earlier than it ever made its means into manufacturing.
The important thing story idea is that dragons have been hidden underneath the earth and are launched initially of the film.
This results in the mass slaughter of people to the purpose of a post-apocalyptic society.
The primary story includes a surviving group hiding from the dragons. When a wandering warrior enters this group, they find yourself being introduced into combating the fiery monsters.
So, right here’s an preliminary and admittedly low-impact principle as to why audiences weren’t lining up for Reign of Hearth, but it surely’s some extent I believe speaks to how promoting an viewers on an thought might be extra nuanced than it initially appears.
Check out the Reign of Hearth posters.
You see dragons burning the London panorama as made apparent by Huge Ben and the Palace of Westminster.
That’s promoting a dragonpocalypse film akin to one thing like Independence Day. “Come see dragons (as a substitute of aliens) destroy the world!”
However if you happen to have a look at the precise footage from Reign of Hearth by taking a look at what they used for the trailer, that concept doesn’t appear to be what the film really represents.
As a substitute of Roland Emmerich-like chaotic glee, Reign of Hearth seems to be to be a really straight-faced and severe tackle dragons versus people.
And that’s what the film is.
It’s not a film about dragons destroying the world. Reign of Hearth is definitely a film a couple of world already destroyed by dragons. That’s the place the majority of the plot takes place.
That in all probability didn’t appear interesting to some viewers proper from the outset who wished to see a dragonpocalypse film that was extra like a catastrophe thrill experience.
Y’know, Tornado however with dragons. And that ain’t Reign of Hearth.
By the point it was in entrance of cameras, Reign of Hearth had X-Information director Rob Bowman on the helm.
Bowman had not solely been a featured director for a lot of key episodes of The X-Information TV collection, however was additionally the director for the primary characteristic movie within the franchise.
And very like he did with The X-Information, Bowman wished to floor a supernatural story in a way of realism.
With this in thoughts, Reign of Hearth finally ends up trying fairly darn good in case your inventive purpose is to create a grungy, determined world that’s practically been obliterated.
Sadly, with an idea as large and daring as “dragons are actual and exist in a contemporary setting”, there have been additionally audiences who simply weren’t going to purchase into this idea in any respect.
Perceive, I believe that is extra to do with the general sentiment of the instances than any lasting points with Reign of Hearth.
Popular culture had simply skilled a fantasy revival with the primary Harry Potter movie and the primary Lord of the Rings movie, each historic successes and flicks that might earn their place as style classics.
Reign of Hearth launched simply months after these motion pictures and was promoting audiences on a contemporary, gritty, and grounded tackle a classical fantasy thought.
It was attempting to do that at a time when the classical fantasy parts of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings had been being embraced by large audiences and discovering their dwelling in popular culture.
Mainly, it was the incorrect time to get people on board with Reign of Hearth’s inventive take. As we speak, that is in all probability an thought that would work due to a post-Sport of Thrones panorama permitting for much less fanciful riffs on fantasy.
It didn’t assist that Reign of Hearth was missing in star energy for the time.
Matthew McConaughey will get high billing however his warrior American is a supporting character at finest. And although he definitely had some cache, he was not some bankable star again in 2002.
Even much less noteworthy for the time was Christian Bale. Although he’d undoubtedly had a breakout position in American Psycho, he had but to don the cape and cowl and develop into a family title.
Look, I like Newsies simply as a lot as you do, however Christian Bale was not a reputation that was getting the household to the drive-in that weekend in 2002.
Identical goes for Gerard Butler, who on the time folks could have acknowledged from, I don’t know, Dracula 2000 if something?
So we’ve obtained a dragonpocalypse film the place we don’t get to see the dragonpocalypse occur, a grimly sensible tackle dragons throughout a time when classical fantasy is at a popular culture peak, and a forged that has but to make their greatest marks within the performing world.
Add to that Reign of Hearth releasing through the second week of a highly-anticipated sequel, Males In Black II, in addition to very combined critiques and you’ve got a recipe for a $60 million results flick that opened on the quantity three spot with $15.6 million.
Reign of Hearth might solely barely beat the opening weekend of the Halloween film the place Busta Rhymes makes use of kung fu on Michael Myers.
No less than it misplaced the quantity two spot to a fantastic comedian e-book film, Street to Perdition, one in all my high 5 favourite Tom Hanks motion pictures.
Now, if you’d like my opinion on Reign of Hearth as a film, you will get the lengthy model within the GenreVision Film Membership episode we did the place we put it up in opposition to DragonHeart.
However whereas I can applaud the dragon results in Reign of Hearth, the precise film is simply okay. It’s not wonderful or horrible and that makes it rather less attention-grabbing as an entire.
Nonetheless, I’ll say that Reign of Hearth is the form of film that deserves one other shot, both by way of a reboot or a sequel/prequel.
I imply, DragonHeart obtained 4 sequels! 4 sequels! And I couldn’t inform you a single factor about them! Besides that they in all probability have dragons in them. Possibly one of many sequels has two dragons? Possibly these dragons are pal dragons or possibly they’re not pal dragons. I don’t know and I’ll by no means know.
However I do know that the concept of doing The Terminator however with dragons destroying humanity as a substitute of robotic skeletons sounds fairly cool.
Reign of Hearth promised a film that might try this however didn’t fairly ship. There’s nonetheless time to make good on that promise.
And because it stands, Reign of Hearth is the form of film that deserves a cult following.
It’s an formidable and distinctive concept that wasn’t fairly proper for the time. It doesn’t assist that the precise manufacturing needed to cope with a illness outbreak, resulting in sure scenes being lower or rewritten out of necessity.
So I’ve some sympathy for Reign of Hearth additionally being an unfairly compromised shoot.
With each different mental property underneath the solar getting put by way of the content material churn, why not give Reign of Hearth one other strive? It may’t be worse than that final Sport of Thrones season!
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