A dumb, by-the-numbers exercise in B-movie monster madness which has a poor script, a dumb plot, awful acting and uninteresting characters. What makes it worth watching, you may ask. The answer lies in the title: the Komodo dragons in the film are worthwhile. Animated by CGI in long-shot and with animatronics in close-up, these big and slimy creatures are never less than convincing and make worthwhile movie monsters. In fact I was very impressed with them, especially considering that this is a straight-to-video fodder after all which usually means below average effects work. But no, it's the reverse, the effects are fine and its just everything else that doesn't work out.
This film screams cliché. Whether its characters walking about in the darkness shouting "who's there?" or all the minor, unimportant characters getting killed off first, this rehashes all the old monster movie staples of the past thirty years into a tired concoction. The first twenty minutes are sentimental tosh involving a traumatised young boy - if I wanted a psychological drama I would have watched one! The rest of the film is straightforward action punctuated by the arrival and departure of minor characters.
The action involving the monsters is great and as is usual for me with a monster flick, I found myself rooting for the creatures over the badly-acting human folk. Their various deaths by impalement and a flare in the mouth seem unnecessarily sadistic and mean-spirited; I know the creatures were faked but this kind of animal snuff reminded me of an Italian cannibal flick. Then there's a total lack of a climax, in which action is ripped off from the end of JURASSIC PARK and a guy survives being immersed in a pool of exploding petrol without so much as a singe. It's that kind of lame-brained film. Watch it for the cool effects; switch off for everything else.
This film screams cliché. Whether its characters walking about in the darkness shouting "who's there?" or all the minor, unimportant characters getting killed off first, this rehashes all the old monster movie staples of the past thirty years into a tired concoction. The first twenty minutes are sentimental tosh involving a traumatised young boy - if I wanted a psychological drama I would have watched one! The rest of the film is straightforward action punctuated by the arrival and departure of minor characters.
The action involving the monsters is great and as is usual for me with a monster flick, I found myself rooting for the creatures over the badly-acting human folk. Their various deaths by impalement and a flare in the mouth seem unnecessarily sadistic and mean-spirited; I know the creatures were faked but this kind of animal snuff reminded me of an Italian cannibal flick. Then there's a total lack of a climax, in which action is ripped off from the end of JURASSIC PARK and a guy survives being immersed in a pool of exploding petrol without so much as a singe. It's that kind of lame-brained film. Watch it for the cool effects; switch off for everything else.