Komodo (1999)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Perfect cast and a good story

Absolutely the worst movie.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

To me, "Komodo" is fun. Partly because I am a real sucker when it comes to movies like this and partly because this one in particular was assembled by a cast and crew composed of concerned individuals. It not only stands over, but towers above many of its kin (some of which are also about large, flesh-eating lizards from Indonesia) with higher production values, a mostly excellent cast, and more of the creative magic that we love the movies for. Now I admit it does not appeal to all, in fact very few, but I cannot deny the fact that I liked it. And I really don't see it as that much of a guilty pleasure.Now the setup of how a colony of ten-foot-long Komodo dragon lizards end up on a North Carolina island is an eye-roller, but the rest of the plot's fabrications are welcoming in their effort and imagination. You see, the lizards massacre a vacationing family on the island, leaving only their teenage son (Kevin Zegers) alive. When he is suspected of having suffered a mental breakdown (having witnessed his parents being torn to shreds in a surprisingly effective opening sequence that relies on our imagination to fill in the gaps) he is escorted back to the island in an effort to discover the truth by his aunt (Nina Landis) and a devoted psychiatrist.The shrink is played by the lovely and talented and underrated Jill Hennessy (of "Law & Order" fame) and it is her performance's conviction and the sure-minded dialogue she is given in the screenplay by Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell that formulates one of the best elements of the movie. Does the picture go into a big, psychological character study of her or anybody else? No. But what it does is create some likable individuals whom we might actually end up caring about when they confront the lizards. There is also a very interesting subplot involving a biologist-turned-mercenary (very well-played by Billy Burke) who is suspected of murdering his wife when the real culprits are, guess who? There's also a very likable character, a trustworthy and noble boatman, also well-played, by Michael Edward-Stevens. With the exception of the snarling, nasal-voiced oil company executive, I found conviction and interesting dynamics (in the monster movie way) from these characters.I think the key to "Komodo"'s success with me was that, unlike many of its fellow creature features, it was put together by a director who had a clue of what he was doing. Is not a coincidence that the movie has good special effects when its director, Michael Lantieri, was the special effects supervisor of pictures such as "Jurassic Park" and therefore had connections with fellow animator Phil Tippett's special effects studio? The titular Komodo lizards are very well-realized via a combination of life-sized animatronics and some very detailed computer graphics. Not only that, but the filmmakers take care in giving us the illusion that the big carnivores are really there by having them nudge, bump, and knock things around in the sets. There's a marvelous and exciting sequence where one of the big lizards shows up unexpectedly in the house, bursts through a pair of doors that two characters are hiding behind, and knocks over a table stacked with items using its head. The coordination and efficiency makes this sequence, and many others, work out extremely well.Also worthy of praise is the imaginative, technically-rich camera work by David Burr (he makes great use of crane and dolly shots whereas many creature features resort to tired old hand-held and locked-down shots) and a wonderful, ear-worm musical score by Academy Award-nominee John Debney. They work well with Mr. Lantieri (who had not made a picture before this one and unfortunately not one since) and bump the movie's production values up several notches above what we would usually expect from a movie simply titled "Komodo." Now you do have your moments of loony dialogue and again, I really wished that they had eradicated the physical presence of the greedy oil exec and instantly implied him rather than show him, but overall the screenplay for "Komodo" also shows some promising creativity. The whole movie does. Even its detractors have to admit that the movie is a whole tier above its contemporaries and I think, for people going in with the right state of mind, will be very fun. I usually detest the monster pictures I find on the SyFy Channel, but this one was a delightful surprise.

"Komodo" isn't that bad but could've been a little better.**SPOILERS**Years after a mysterious massacre, psychiatrist Victoria, (Jill Hennessy) brings traumatized soul-survivor Patrick Connally, (Kevin Zegers) back to the small island where his parents were killed. Bringing his Aunt Annie, (Nina Landis) along with her to help him recover from the incident. Although initial attempts to get through fail, she feels she's near a breakthrough when they're attacked by giant Komodo Dragons. Attempting to get away, they seek shelter with oil workers Bracken, (Simon Westaway) Oates, (Billy Burke) and Denby, (Paul Gleeson) who work on the island. Realizing that the Komodo's are here as a result of an accident years ago and are covering up their existence on the island, they all try to survive the creatures and help him overcome his fear of the island.The Good News: This isn't all that bad of a creature feature. This is thankfully one of the better explanations for the creature's increased aggression. Rather than simply being normal creatures blown up to insane sizes through genetic testing that also made them crave meat, this one simply has them become hungry due to lack of natural food and the characters show up on the island at the worst time possible, forcing them to go after the only food source. It works from a nature stand-point, as this has happened where lack of food has made creatures savage and feral, adding credibility to the film, while also not sounding like every other flick out there in the genre. The pacing isn't all that bad, and even though there's no real stand-out action sequence or one happening every five minutes, this still manages to remain watchable. There's no real down-time devoted to needless exposition or useless scenes that deeper define characters that don't mean anything. The attacks, what few are shown on-screen, aren't that bad and actually come off pretty good, most notably the initial house encounter. The appearance of the creature that early in the film is a nice shock, the attempts to get away are pretty suspenseful and the pay-off is quite rewarding and really works. The highway escape has some spooky moments, and the final showdown is still modest and low-key, just like the film. The best scene is the encounter in the tunnels, which is full of action and features a lot of great moments. From the nice touch of the creature's step breaking away part of the floor to the trap set for it to the lucky break needed to escape the threat, it's a really fantastic sequence that throws in a great jump and plenty of action into the mix. The last part that works for the film is it's creatures. When they're not CGI-created and actually are depicted by models, they look great. There's a sense of them actually being there, they look close-enough for realism sake, and move like real ones. All together, this one isn't that bad.The Bad News: This here did have a few problems with it. The biggest problem is that there's no real blood or gore in here. This is mostly determined by it's weak rating, which really results in harming the film more than anything. This robs the creatures of their menace, relegating most of their attacks to happen off-screen away from showing the viciousness that is shown when they pop back up on-screen. The attacks are pretty brutal-appearing yet there's only a couple attacks that are shown. There's very little blood at all, and more appears on the creature-aftermath than through the human victims, and that really lowers their threat-level if they don't vigorously tear into prey. The other problem, which really haunts most creature features, is the use of CGI to render the creatures. Despite the mix of the real-life puppets in several scenes, the times where the CGI creature comes into play are painfully obvious. The activity is far too exaggerated for living creatures, they don't blend in naturally and have an air of fake-ness around them. These here are it's main flaws.The Final Verdict: While there's a few flaws, this one still has enough good points to make it a great recommendation for creature feature fans. Give it a chance if you're a fan of these films, or those curious, though if you're a gore-hound then at least seek caution with this one.Rated PG-13: Violence, mild Language and creature violence

The film concerns about an adolescent called Patrick(Kevin Zegers)whose parents are killed by a giant animal.He is traumatized but long time ago his family and dog were devoured by a carnivorous savage beasts,the Komodo dragons and with the particularity which their blood is venomous .An eggs were dumped on the coast of Emerald island in North Caroline.Nowadays they have grown up in a 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 his main enemy is lurking.They are helped by a valiant young(Billy Burke)to confront one of nature's most fearsome predator which savagely stalking its prey,the race human. The dragons delivers the goods with hair-raising chills,terror,full of scares when the creatures appear with a outstanding special effects but they seen alive.Apparition and attack Komod dragons are similar to Jurassik Park's Velocirraptors.Excellent FX by Phil Tippett studio with several success(Starship Troopers I and II,League of extraordinary gentlemen,Blade II,Hellboy).Spectacular and atmospheric music by the successful John Debney(Sin City,Zathura,Passion of Christ).The motion picture is 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 following by Jim Wynorski ,¨The curse of the Komodo¨with Tim Abell and ¨Komodo vs. Cobra with Michael Pare.

This film had some big potential but when the monsters,the giant komodo dragons don't do anything except for some dumb stunts and get hurt and/or killed which this was very disappointing for Me as I was expecting a much better film.If you like monster films and like to see giant animals and/or monster kill people then don't see this film because it doesn't happen:( Avoid it if you don't want to waste your time and money.