There are two distinct categories of modern killer-animal movies: those with a budget and those without a budget. Komodo obviously fell into the former, but failed to live up to its group's standards.
In order to make a successful monster-dragon (or other man-eating creature) movie, two or more of the following elements need to be in place:
1) It is assumed that high-budget movies will all have decent special effects. Komodo did indeed have some cool CG and animatronic dragons.
2) Throw in a rough, un-likeable protagonist so that you occasionally root for the monster. Anaconda did this quite well with John Voight's character. But there also need to be some characters who you don't want to be eaten. I guess that's where Komodo lacked.
3) Add a comic relief ... please. LL Cool J was great in Deep Blue Sea and the entire cast of Lake Placid fit this description perfectly.
4) Add character development. Hats off to Jurassic Park.
5) Please, oh please, come up with an original story. Do not, under any circumstance, have a 16 year old boy tear out a dragon's heart and paint his chest with blood. Ok? There is a line you must not cross here. We already saw and/or read Lord of the Flies.
6) Cast a high-salary movie star and kill him/her off in the first half of the movie. Rest in peace Sam Jackson.
Since Komodo barely met one of these standards (#1), it will forever be placed into that void where lie big budget failures like Supernova and End of Days.
In order to make a successful monster-dragon (or other man-eating creature) movie, two or more of the following elements need to be in place:
1) It is assumed that high-budget movies will all have decent special effects. Komodo did indeed have some cool CG and animatronic dragons.
2) Throw in a rough, un-likeable protagonist so that you occasionally root for the monster. Anaconda did this quite well with John Voight's character. But there also need to be some characters who you don't want to be eaten. I guess that's where Komodo lacked.
3) Add a comic relief ... please. LL Cool J was great in Deep Blue Sea and the entire cast of Lake Placid fit this description perfectly.
4) Add character development. Hats off to Jurassic Park.
5) Please, oh please, come up with an original story. Do not, under any circumstance, have a 16 year old boy tear out a dragon's heart and paint his chest with blood. Ok? There is a line you must not cross here. We already saw and/or read Lord of the Flies.
6) Cast a high-salary movie star and kill him/her off in the first half of the movie. Rest in peace Sam Jackson.
Since Komodo barely met one of these standards (#1), it will forever be placed into that void where lie big budget failures like Supernova and End of Days.