Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Chantel Contreras It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Uriah43 A young boy named "Patrick Connally" (Kevin Zegers) goes into shock after both of his parents are killed by a komodo dragon and is unable to deal with this tragedy or communicate with anyone about the event. Then one day a psychiatrist by the name of "Victoria" (Jill Hennessy) decides to take him back to the relatively unpopulated island where it happened. Unfortunately, she has no idea what awaits them. Along with that a rich oil tycoon has hired two people to discreetly kill all of the komodo dragons on the island—and anybody else who might happen along as well. Now although this movie certainly isn't in the same league as "Jaws" it had some good things going for it all the same. First of all, the special effects regarding the komodo dragons were pretty good even by today's standards. Additionally, having an attractive actress like the aforementioned Jill Hennessy certainly didn't hurt either. Even so there were some scenes which tended to be rather dull and this definitely hurts a movie of this type to some degree. That said, all things considered I have to rate this movie as slightly below average.

TheUnknown837-1 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.

r-enderlein22 the story has been already reviewed excellent by IMDb.com itself and many users so let's jump to the funny part: what the hell makes the movie 10 star worthy to me? Well, first i'm in love with the movies (including the bad ones). as long a film entertains me, it gets his 10 points...Period. Oh and 'komodo' entertained me a lot. If you like animal creature features, i recommend 'jaws' or 'komodo'. If you like horror, i recommend 'the exorcist' or 'komodo'. If you like comedy, i recommend 'some like it hot' or 'komodo'...fill in some genre and cinematic epic of choice...but serious, 'komodo' is a great creature feature, done with love, packed with action,adventure&comedy and kids can watch it too, because there's no blood&guts.this is for the *boo,b-movie trash* screamers: the entire look of the movie doesn't looks cheap in anyway, neither the great special effects nor the superb cinematography) and my question to the studio lobby: why couldn't you bring such movies (or some of the other titles named above) to the big screen anymore? it's a shame...

Movie Nuttball This film had some big potential but when the monsters,the giant komodo dragons don't do anything except for some dumb stunts and get hurt and/or killed which this was very disappointing for Me as I was expecting a much better film.If you like monster films and like to see giant animals and/or monster kill people then don't see this film because it doesn't happen:( Avoid it if you don't want to waste your time and money.