Review of Komodo

Komodo (1999)
5/10
Average 'creature on the loose' monster film.
27 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Komodo starts on the 'Emerald Ise North Carolina' where some guy (Nique Needles) chucks a bunch of Komodo eggs on the side of the road, for no apparent reason as you would. Jump forward '19 Summers Later' & teenage boy Patrick Connally (Kevin Zegers) & his parents (Bruce Hughes & Jane Conroy) arrive home, that night they are attacked & killed by giant Komodo's. Back on the main land & ever since the unfortunate incident Patrick has been suffering post traumatic stress, as you would I suppose. The authorities want to put him in a mental hospital but his psychiatrist Victoria (Jill Hennessy) believes taking him back tot he island to confront his fears & inner demons will cure him, I'm not sure why but there you go. Patrick's aunt Annie (Nina Landis) also goes along for the ride, just to have a disposable character for the Komodo's to kill more than anything else. Once there they are attacked by the vicious Komodo's & together with two hunters, Oates (Billy Burke) & Denby (Paul Gleeson), must fight the Komodo's & find a way off the island or become lizard food!

This Australian American co-production was directed by Micael Lantieri & is an OK nature on the rampage type film but nothing to get excited about. The script by Hans Bauer & Craig Mitchell treads the same worn path that these types of films do, the isolated location, the monster threat, the hero, the one who gets separated from the group & the other's insist on finding them, the rich uncaring businessmen who are only bothered about money & various unlikely coincidences (the only two vehicles on the island just happen to crash into each other?) that leave our group of survivors in peril. Komodo moves along at a fair pace although thinking about it now not much really happened, only three people die during the bulk of the film & it has relatively low ambitions as a spectacle. I don't understand why these Komodo's are so big, nothing is ever mentioned & in fact Oates (who also happens to be a biologist, a complete co incidence of course) claims they are just an endangered species. I've never know lizards that big. Also why does the oil company want to secretly kill these lizards? It's claimed because they don't want bad publicity which is fine but if their that concerned about publicity why not capture them & relocate them somewhere safe? Surely that would bring massive amounts of free positive publicity, I mean an oil company caring for the environment right? The character's are paper thin & you can spot the ones who are going to die a mile off.

Director Lantieri brings a degree of competence to the film but not much else. It has no real style, tension or excitement. Having said that the Komodo CGI effects are surprisingly very good, these don't look too far behind the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (1993). The attack scenes aren't that great as the Komodo's walk so slowly, most people could probably out-walk them. Forget about any blood or gore, just a couple of Komodo bites.

Technically Komodo is alright, with a budget of about $15,000,000 Australian Dollars it's a nice looking film & well made. The beautiful Australian locations are the films one real highlight. The acting was OK but nothing outstanding.

Komodo is an OK time waster but it brings nothing new to the monster on the loose sub genre that Jurassic Park didn't over six years prior. Just about worth watching if your desperate or if there's nothing else on.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed