Written by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka, Matt Greenberg and Gary Barber and directed by Rob Bowman, Touchstone Pictures latest film, "Reign of Fire" is an apocalyptic story filled with action and adventure.

The story opens as an 11 year old boy walks through a London City fountain and square filled with birds. He walks to a construction site where he shares light banter with the workers. He steps into the construction elevator, which takes him to the bottom of the construction shaft. At the bottom he finds his mother(Alice Krige), one of the engineers in charge of the construction of a new rail tunnel.

The boy begins to "help" the construction workers. Together they break through a wall into a cavern. The boy goes through the hole and inadvertently wakes a dragon. The dragon goes after the workers, spewing fire as he goes. The boy and his mother barely escape into the elevator as they desperately attempt to get to the surface. As the elevator gets to the surface, the dragon hits the elevator killing the mother as she covers her son with her body.

Northumberland, England- Year 2020

In an old castle a small group of survivors eek out a meager existence trying to avoid the dragons which have reproduced at an incredible rate and now have overrun the Earth. The group is led by Quinn Abercromby(Christian Bale), an educated and gentle man. His group consists of adult strays who have no where else to go, but the majority of his group are orphaned children. With his best friend, Creedy(Gerard Butler), he teaches them to grow their own food and protect themselves from the dragons.

One day, their world is invaded by an American calling himself Denton Van Zan(Matthew McConaughey). Van Zan is the leader of a small group of National Guard soldiers who have banded together to fight the dragons. Among their weapons they include are a Hugh's Corporation helicopter, a tank and several small vehicles and weapons. Van Zan is a strong, charismatic leader and tries to enlist help from the group in the castle. He shows his leadership abilities as he directs his forces against an approaching dragon. After the skirmish, he turns to the castle occupants and invites them to fill out his ranks of soldiers. When they refuse, he "drafts" the larger muscular men and takes them by gunpoint. His mission, to go into the heart of London and find the lair of the lead male dragon. Van Zan believes that if they can kill this dragon then the species will die. On the outskirts of London the group of National Guard soldiers and their draftees are caught off guard by an attack by the male dragon, killing all but three of the company including Van Zan, his helicopter pilot and a soldier. While they are on the journey, the castle is attacked by the male, who had followed the scent back to its source. The dragon destroys the castle, but Quinn is able to save most of the children and one or two of the adults. In trying to protect the children, Quinn's friend, Creedy, is killed. It is now that Quinn realizes they needed to take the fight back to London, because the dragon would never leave them alone. At this time, Van Zan and his party return to the castle and find the devastation. Quinn informs them that he will take them back to London because he knew it well. He is the young boy that survived the first dragon attack in the rail tunnel. The helicopter pilot, Alex(Izabella Scorupco) agrees to take him and Van Zan to London. Before he leaves, Quinn, puts a young man, Jared(Scott Moutter), a boy he rescued in charge of the surviving children ordering him to keep them safe.

Using the helicopter, the three head for London . They find the city devastated, but can see where the dragon's lair is. Each of party goes in separate directions as they try to get closer. Van Zan climbs a water tower so he can get a better shot at the dragon. He is killed in a short fight leaving the fight to Quinn and Alex. Quinn takes an explosive arrow and after an intense fight shoots the dragon in the throat. The dragon is killed and he and Alex return to the castle where they find Jared keeping his promise. As they build a new radio tower, Jared gets a message from another band of survivors in France. Once again, they are relieved that there are other humans still alive and look forward to a promising future because they hadn't seen a dragon in over three months. Quinn acknowledges that Van Zan was right. When they killed the male, they ended the species.

This viewer found "Reign Of Fire" to have the basic formula for an action adventure film. It had been done before in such features as "Mad Max." But this does not take away from the energy of the film. Bale and McConaughey's chemistry as diametrically opposed personalities was exceptional. Bale played the character of Quinn with simplicity and heart. At the end of the movie, this viewer felt that the real hero of the film was Quinn, a man fighting desperate odds to keep those under his care alive and safe. McConaughey was excellent as he portrayed, Van Zan, a man whose passion to kill the dragons overwhelmed him, clouding his perspective and eventually getting those under his command killed.

This viewer was impressed with Scorupco performance of Alex, a woman helicopter pilot thrown into a war and caring herself with dignity. This is not seen often in Hollywood films. The other cast members also offered strong support to the main characters in the story.

The directing by Rob Bowman was excellent helping the actors to find the centers of their characters. The visuals and special affects, especially the air scenes were exceptional.

Overall, this viewer found this movie entertaining, but with a great deal of graphic violence and would recommend that parents might want to refrain from taking children below the age of 13 to this film. Many of the children in the audience at the theater this viewer attended were disturbed by the graphic violence.