A pretty ok movie with surprisingly good effects.I wasnt expecting much from this movie, I was actually expecting it to be bad, I wanted to laugh at what could possibly be terrible effects but its amazingly competent in that astpect, the komodo dragons are well done, specially the practical effects but the cgi is also decently looking for the time. However, everything else falls flat, the acting is not very good, the script has issues, as well as the editing but I would say that its overall very watchable.Something that I will give this movie is that at least the characters werent annoying, you dont see that in these kind of movies too often.

I don't understand why these movies where people investigate a mystery the audience already knows the truth behind are so common.Are there komodo dragons on the island? Did they kill Patrick's parents? The movie is called Komodo; if you can't accurately guess the answer you scare me...Aside from the mystery, Patrick behaves oddly at times although considering he's traumatised that's perhaps not terribly surprising. However he changes from being somewhat withdrawn to being intent on slaughtering any lizards in sight.Unfortunately Patrick provides the only element making this any different from several similar movies & the pacing is dreadfully slow resulting in a film that isn't terribly entertaining.

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.

The first time I saw Komodo was eight years ago, not long after it came out. I also saw Bats, Octopus, Crocodile, Python and about twenty others in the same three or four month period. I thought this was the worst. Having seen it again eight years later, my opinions have not greatly changed, but I think I know what the problem is. Quite frankly, Komodo is dull. All attempts to create an original story backfire, because of bad acting, no direction, and a lack of intelligent dialog. Komodo forgets that it is a mere monster flick, it shouldn't attempt to be anything more intelligent or dramatic when it is incapable. One never expects these films to be smart, but they should be entertaining at least. The komodos in this film may be lively and mobile but watching the film itself, is not much more captivating than watching real komodos in a zoo, where they do nothing but sleep and occasionally blink. But I've digressed; my point is, skip it.Set on the fictional Emerald Island, one night a moronic truck driver transporting a shipment of various animals dumps a piece of his cargo because it stinks; a crate of komodo eggs. Twenty years later, young Patrick Connally and his parents go on holiday to the island where they have a nice little house away from civilization. On the night of their arrival his family is killed. Patrick is taken to a hospital on the mainland, suffering from PTS. A pretty young psychiatrist comes and takes him back to the island where she hopes to find out what made the poor kid crack. She is about to find out. After a near fatal encounter with the dragons, Patrick runs away. With the help of a local biologist acting as a lizard hunter for the government the psychiatrist goes to find him.Michael Lantieri may be a one-time director, but he has an impressive career in visual effects, and won an Oscar with Stan Winston for Jurassic Park. The komodo effects here are surprisingly convincing, and the lizards are created with fair scientific accuracy. The komodo dragon (which now number only a few thousand) can grow to ten feet in length. They are among the smartest lizards, with keen eyesight and an even keener sense of smell. They have toxic saliva and they hunt in packs. I doubt however if they growl or snarl the way they do in the film.On these technical grounds, Komodo is superior to its b-movie contemporaries (including those I've named), but as a thriller it's dull as a doorknob. Unless you are a skilled filmmaker, there is a price to pay for choosing to shy away from the fun stereotypes of the genre. Komodo loses all potential to be a worthy watch for the monster fans.