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.
