Halfway There, with Dragons

The post-dragon-apocalypse movie Reign of Fire was so much fun. It goes to places that better movies --say, 28 Days Later-- don't: it actually gives us post-apocalypse. Not only are these folks still fighting the durn dragons, but they've been doing it for twenty years, and trying to set up a civilization in the meantime.

Structurally, what I like most about Reign is its midpoint. One way of thinking about the midpoint is as a moment in which success is within reach, only to be yanked away. It's a moment of hope, to be followed by failure and despair. At this midpoint, the cavalry is here, and it seems like they're going to take care of the dragons once and for all. But the mission goes awry and people die and equipment is lost and more dragons are coming.

The midpoint:

• Is exciting and surprising
  
• Raises the stakes - the situation is now more dire than it was in the opening
• Provides complications for later, in the loss of equipment and men and morale
  
• Unites our two groups of people - now the soldiers and the settlers have to work together
• Gives us a taste of what the climax will be like, and a sense of how hard it's going to be to defeat these beasts

My complaint? That anticipated climax falls flat. The midpoint should never be more dramatic than the climax. Storytelling 101, guys. But maybe that lesson was lost in the flames...