Komodo vs. Cobra - is it always necessary to see a monster in a monster movie? | Movie Talk | What's on TV

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Is it always necessary to see the monster in a monster movie?

Well, if it's a monster movie comedy, then yes, absolutely.

And, if the filmmakers want us to feel some empathy for the monstrous brute in question, (King Kong, Frankenstein's monster, even to some extent Wolfman - out today) then also yes.

But, if your monster is going to spend the entire film terrorising its co-stars then I think not.

Take Jaws: with the exception of one big toothy mouth scene, that killer fish remains hidden under the water throughout the movie, and makes its presence felt with the carnage it leaves behind or simply that sinister fin. To me this is far more frightening than, say, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. They look the part and the visual effects are outstanding, but once the novelty of the CGI has worn off, those Jurassic beasts just become the screen-hogging stars of a slasher movie.

I personally wish that filmmakers would refrain from concocting spectacular beasts for monster movie thrillers. These days it seems that because the CGI technology exists people feel that it should be used. But should it? Less is always more for me, and this is particularly pertinent when a film doesn't have the budget for amazing visual effects.

So how about Komodo vs. Cobra? Well, watching the opening five minutes cast me back to one of those long summer holiday days when I was a kid and decided it'd be fun to stick my collection of model dinosaurs around my mum's rockery and take photos of them to amaze my friends

Hmm, OK, the film's effects are somewhat better than my primitive monster pics ever were but I think you get the idea. However, the great thing about this film is that you get to see these big beasts within the first five minutes, so at least you can walk away without having wasted too much time

Having said that, I didn't walk away. I thought I should give it more of a chance.

So here's the plot: a group of filmmakers and activists travel to an island near Bora Bora to expose a secret military project. They're hoping for a shock story exposé, but they're not quite prepared to find oversized reptiles wandering around.

It turns out that the secret military project has not gone to plan. Experiments with a growth hormone have had monstrous results and only one of the scientists involved has survived - the pretty one predictably.

While the visitors try to avoid being gobbled up by a giant lizard and snake, it slowly dawns on them that it's only a matter of time until the military discover the implications of the project's failure and send teams in to destroy the entire island.