Reign of Fire / YMMV

Critical Dissonance:
- Both the movie (42% on Rotten Tomatoes) and the games were disliked by critics, but (at the very least) liked by the audience/gamers.
- The story itself is actually refreshing - there aren't many movies where the modern world has been brought to its knees by dragons, and an American Dragon-slaying Unit is an interesting twist - England is usually the setting for those kinds of stories.
Cult Classic: Was not a big box office success by any means, but it has nonetheless won itself a dedicated following over time.
Genius Bonus: The Americans introduce themselves as the "Kentucky Irregulars", something that did not make sense to most American audiences, but would be more likely to make sense to Europeans due to differences in terminology. Irregulars are military personnel who are not part of the military proper, referring to militia, auxiliaries and other elements. The "Kentucky Irregulars" are the Kentucky National Guard. (For non-Americans, National Guard refers to the military forces that belong to the individual states rather than to the Federal Government.) Meanwhile, in colonial times (such as when the British Empire held sway in the Americas), Kentucky was a region known as a very fertile hunting ground. Lo and behold, the Kentucky National Guard shows up to hunt dragons.
He's Just Hiding: There are very few actual on-screen deaths when the male dragon engulfs the Kentucky Irregulars in flames, ^note likely due to the PG-13 rating, making it possible that characters Barlow and Eddie escaped the fire.
Just Here for Godzilla: In this case, the dragons.
Hilarious in Hindsight: This won’t be the last time that Gerard Butler would be in a movie about humans vs dragons.
Magnificent Bastard: Denton Van Zan is a self-proclaimed Dragon Slayer, mobilizing his military group the Kentucky Irregulars in hunting and killing the beasts in an attempt to retake the Earth. Using creative technology and strategies to fight the powerful dragons, Van Zan even adapts to losing conditions with ease, appropriating Quinn Abercromby as a new tool when one of his men dies in combat. Van Zan, having deduced that if the sole male dragon, "the Bull", is killed it will lead to the dragons dying out, ends up devising a scheme to kill it after analyzing the Bull's flight patterns. Though Van Zan is killed, he goes out Defiant to the End trying to kill the Bull with an axe, and his tactical advice proves to save the day when Quinn continues Van Zan's plan, securing humanity's future free from dragons.
Nightmare Fuel: The Bull. This dragon is considerably larger than the females and it shows. On its own, the Bull wiped out the Kentucky Irregulars in just one pass over them and then he just flew off immediately to the castle. The way he crawled up carefully to the castle suggests not only that he knew about the place, but that he'd done it before. It was like he just wanted an excuse to attack it.
One-Scene Wonder: Matt (who isn't even credited) and Devon are decently memorable for their scenes of trying to elude the dragon during the foraging expedition before getting torched.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey were not very well known when this film was made. In fact, the leads and major supporting actors were somewhat annoyed at the fact that the children on set would ignore them and crowd around Alexander Siddig asking him for autographs and asking Star Trek questions.
- One of the kids seen in the castle after the Bull Dragon attacks it is Joffrey Lannister/Jim Gordon's son.
- One of the members of Van Zan's monster hunting group is Geralt of Rivia himself.
So Bad, It's Good: Big time. Bonus points go to Van Zan's final scene, which is so incredibly stupid and yet simultaneously amazing to spoil here.
Special Effect Failure: As Van Zan climbs the ladder at the end, the metal bow of his crossbow is bending on each rung behind him, revealing the fact that it is made of rubber.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Paratrooper Gideon is the highlight of the film's best action scene and then gets Quinn's surrogate son Jared interested in joining his team. However, Gideon's interactions with Jared take place off-screen, and he doesn't participate in the climax even after surviving the attack on the caravan.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Director Rob Bowman said that he and everyone else involved on the project were fully aware that they were essentially making a B-Movie but decided to do do the best job they could, meaning that the film includes genuine acting and some truly amazing visual effects.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The dragons were created by the now-defunct The Secret Lab and did look pretty convincing, to the point that quite a few reviews would say the movie was bad, but the dragons were awesome.

YMMV / Reign of Fire

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