"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
**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