DIRECTOR, CAST LEAD NOT-SO-SUCCESSFUL 'REIGN'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

IN THEIR EFFORTS to make an unsilly movie about dragons, the ``Reign of Fire'' brain trust went rather too far. What they've come up with is a grim, enjoyment-impaired, postapocalyptic trudge.

Yes, the dragons look neat and are genuinely frightening - at least until the sameness of the encounters with them dilutes the fear factor. And indeed, the film's script, by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg, tries to keep its focus on the people battling the big flying monsters. But those people just aren't given enough inner life to build much interest when something isn't getting toasted. And, as mentioned, the fricassee bits get old fast, leaving not much but an ashen aftertaste.

The problem starts in modern-day London, where a schoolboy visiting his engineer mom at her Underground extension dig accidentally awakens a long-sleeping papa dragon. Twenty years later, there ain't much left, anywhere, but said boy has grown into Quinn (Christian Bale), the leader of a small band of survivors holed up in an ancient Northumberland castle.

Slowly running out of food and other necessities, the grimy group has little hope of seeing its unusually large number of children into adulthood. Then, one day, ``the only thing worse than dragons'' as one sentry puts it, comes rattling down the road: a heavily armed unit of Americans.

Led by the extensively tattooed, magnificently muscled and shave-headed Van Zan (a crazier-than-usual Matthew McConaughey), the Yanks have somehow made it over to pursue a suicidal solution to the dragon situation. See, they've figured out that there's only one male - the very one that Quinn first encountered - and if they can get to his London lair and wipe him out, the rest of the fire-breathing population will die off.

The Americans also have a semi-successful method of downing flying fire lizards. It involves guys with nets jumping out of a helicopter piloted by the beautiful but troubled Alex (Izabella Scorupco, from the 1995 Bond epic ``GoldenEye''). It doesn't make any tactical sense if you think about it for an instant, but it does make for a different kind of kinetic action sequence, something this movie could have used several more of.

Anyway, Quinn is reluctant to sign onto Van Zan's wild-eyed plan - but for purely practical reasons, not out of the guilt or repressed trauma that would have made him a more intriguing character. Matters get settled by a pretty good knockdown fight between Quinn and Van Zan (reportedly, real punches and head-butts connected during the single-take fracas, and it looks like it). Once everybody winds up in the ruins of Parliament, Wolf Kroeger's burned-out production designs effectively take over.

Rob Bowman, who directed many ``X-Files'' episodes and the movie based on the series, does a technically decent job of staging and telling his story. He just needed to go deeper or, if possible, figure out how to have a little more fun with this concept. Dramatic doesn't have to mean dark and depressing, and while it might have conflicted with fundamental marching orders, if even a serious dragon movie can't get a little lighthearted with the intrinsically silly material, then why light the fire at all?

REIGN OF FIRE - Two and one half stars

(Rated PG-13: violence, children in jeopardy, language)

Starring: Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco.

Director: Rob Bowman.

Running time: 1 hr. 52 min.

Playing: Wide release.

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Photo:

Christian Bale examines a dragon egg during a quiet moment in ``Reign of Fire,'' which suffers from its seriousness.