So I got to sit in on a screening of this last night for free instead of waiting and paying $9.00 for it like all you other suckers. 
It was pretty cool–by that I mean the getting in free and not necessarily the movie.
The Trailers
—Another one for XXX. Gag.
----Signs–the crop circle one with Mel Gibson. Wow! This was a different trailer than the one they’ve been showing with Spidey and AOTC and it effortlessly rocketed this movie from my “maybe I’ll see it” list to my “no way I’m missing it” list.
----FearDotCom–Eh. Although there was a creepy little girl with glowing white hair (think carol anne “they’re heeerrree”) who caught my eye.
The Movie—
Ok, so the first ten minutes of the movie establishes the discovery of a “forgotten, sleeping race” of dragons who explode through the crust of the earth, roam the planet eating anything that moves and burning anything that still stands. Man tries to fight back but mostly just makes things worse with nukes. Humanity scatters–twenty years later a small settlement seeming to consist mainly of children dressed in blue potato sacks is living in an English castle. They fear that they might be the only humans left.
Now–I can forgive them for glossing over the “How this came to be” background. They wanted to tell a story about the survivors—not about how they survived. What I can’t forgive is them introducing this super race of dragons and then giving them ZERO personality. Oh look–they fly, they breath fire, they eat. We’re told they’re intelligent–but never shown. We’re told they have a physical imperfection, much is made of this, the plan is based around it–but then it never comes into play. I wanted to see them in their lair, plotting the human’s doom. I wanted to see a look in their eyes that seethed hatred as they plowed their prey down. I wanted them to be colorful–reds and greens and whites. Instead they were all poop-brown. And while I loved the shape they gave the dragons, what the hell was up with their wings being all swiss-cheesy full of holes? Don’t you think that might interfere with their gliding capabilities? Hmmmm? And I’m not even going to go into the race’s supposed Achilles Heel–but hahahahahah, you’ve got to be kidding me! I won’t spoil it, but if you see it you’ll know exactly what I mean.
VanZant (Matthew Mc.) had the most interesting character–although he gave his “you cowards disgust me” speech while apparently admiring the stonework in the ceiling. The whole time he’s talking all you see is his throat and chin. Weird. Christian Bale did what he could with the character–a man struggling to maintain his clan’s small foothold but knowing that without action he’s merely postponing inevitable deaths. Unfortunately, I never developed much interest in whether he suceeded or not. The female pilot, Alex, was a solid performance of a subpar character. Again, just blah–we never know nearly enough about her to get involved.
But man did the dragons look good! Great special effects–there were only two shots in the whole movie where I frowned over a bad edit/effect, and only one of those times involved a “dragon”. And the fire scenes (of which there were many) were awesome. The screeching howl the dragons made was brutal–very tingle-icious. And much of the setting–burning cities, abandoned world, skyscrapers gutted for dragon nests–was very well-done. Overall–I actually enjoyed the flick–I mean, they were dragons– but I wish Wish WISH they had spent a bit more time on the script while they were cooking up all those special effects. Where’s the ambivilent smiley when you need him?