Komodo

It's not really an awful movie, but it is pretty bad. At least, the plot and acting are pretty mediocre at best and downright terrible in places. The effects are surprisingly good for a movie this cheap. In fact, I was favourably impressed by them. There are one or two obviously bad animatronic moments, but on the whole the dragons look good to the eye.

This isn't a movie which will win anything, but it's reasonable fare for a rainy day when you're bored. Or a beer-night with friends. Don't expect Jurassic Park in terms of acting or effects, let alone story, and you might actually think this movie isn't half bad. No, wait....the story is still too lame. Ok, think of it as a tolerable film if you're desperate.

Watch out for the flaregun effect right at the end. I was quite surprised to see this effect in a low-budget flick that it stands out as a "Wow!" moment. One of the more original effects I've seen on film. In fact, the effects are what saves this movie from being a real turkey. Watch it for them.

Komodo is about a boy whose family gets eaten by giant Komodo dragons. He then goes on to forget this and put into care. That is until an unfeasibly attractive female psychiatrist decides that the only way to 'cure' him is to return to the island where his parents (oh, and dog) disappeared to see if it will jog his memory.

Much of the first half of the film is the characters wandering round the island, waiting for the boy to remember that there's man-eating Komodo dragons here. Then, at last, the man-eating Komodo dragons attack and start eating everyone. At that point, the boy says, "Oh, by the way, there are man-eating Komodo dragons here. Didn't I mention it?" But it's kind of too late by then. Besides, you'll have guessed which characters will and won't survive the man-eating Komodo dragons within about 0.8 of a second of them opening their mouths.

Also, there are some henchmen on the island. Who are they henchmen for? Does it matter? They're there to get eaten. In fact, I think they bathed in barbecue sauce (or whatever man-eating Komodo dragons add to their human meals to spice them up a little) before they came. Add to it an unfeasibly attractive man on the island to add a bit of love interest and you get a film that a man-eating Komodo dragon could probably write himself (albeit with a greater depth of characterisation and better acted).

I like B-movies and I enjoy daft monster-munching films. However, there's just something pretty lame about this one. The man-eating Komodo dragons are mainly CGI and you can tell there's really a green-screen behind them every time you see them, the acting is below par even for a B-movie and you'll have to be pretty bored to really enjoy this.

Deep Rising, Shark Night, Piranha - all totally stupid monster movies and yet, at the same time, great fun. Sadly, Komodo can't be added to that list.

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The film concerns a teenager called Patrick (Kevin Zegers) whose parents are killed by a giant animal. He is extremely traumatized, long time ago his family and dog were devoured by carnivorous savage beasts, the Komodo dragons and with the particularity which their blood is venomous. Eggs were dumped on the coast of Emerald island in North Caroline. Nowadays, they have grown up in giant lizards terrorizing the island countryside. Patrick along with his therapist (Jill Henessy) return to the place where the large creatures roam for facing off the fears but their main enemy is lurking. They are helped by a valiant young (Billy Burke) to confront one of nature's most fearsome predators which savagely stalking its prey, the race human.

The dragons deliver the goods with hair-raising chills, terror, and full of scares when the creatures appear with outstanding special effects but they seem really alive. Apparition and attacks from Komod dragons are similar to "Jurassic Park's Velocirraptors" . Excellent FX by Phil Tippett studio with several successes (Starship Troopers I and II, League of extraordinary gentlemen, Blade II, Hellboy). Spectacular and atmospheric musical score by notorious composer John Debney (Sin City, Zathura, Passion of Christ). The motion picture was regularly directed by Michael Lantieri in his only film, he is a magnificent special effects supervisor and coordinator (Pirates of Caribbean, Lost World, Indiana Jones and the last Crusade). The film had two exploitation follow-ups: directed by Jim Wynorski ¨The curse of the Komodo¨with Tim Abell and ¨Komodo vs. Cobra with Michael Pare.

"Komodo" cries out with the anguished screams of wasted potential. Its flaws mostly smother its virtues. The acting is reasonably solid, with the exception of (among others) the film's useless villain, a tacked-on character whose accent which wanders clumsily from Cockney to Australian and back again. The special effects are the film's true strength, although in some scenes they seem poorly composited into the scene -- their ambient shadows are not colour-matched as well as they deserve to be.

Essentially, the problem with the movie is its lousy script, and Michael Lantieri's somewhat mechanical, dispassionate efforts as a director. I'm glad this guy gave up directing after "Komodo", because visual effects are clearly his forte.

As an aside, the locations are somewhat interesting for a Brisbane native -- I spotted the Cape Moreton lighthouse from Moreton Island, as well as the dodgy Brisbane suburb of Wynnum. The "street" scene was all too obviously an outdoor set, however. And what's a cop car with Georgia license plates doing in North Carolina? It wouldn't have jurisdiction there.

Four stars out of ten. Pity it wasn't better.

I wasn't going to watch Komodo when it first came out on video here in the United Kingdom-I'd had enough of films featuring snakes and lizards and dinosaurs as they always disappointed me. But Komodo was different.

Firstly, I think Komodo dragons are evil looking creatures (apologies to anyone out there who has a pet komodo)and this film was quite scary at times. It was set on an island and the Komodo's were crawling around although you could never be sure when or where they would strike. When they did strike, they did it hard!

There have been quite a few disappointing lizard/snake/amphibian films over the years where the creatures have looked totally fake and the plots have been very comedic. I am pleased to say that Komodo was very different and I would recommend checking it out.