More lost than "Lost"
A plane crashes in the jungle. The survivors seem to have been all in the tail section of the plane. Having broken up the cockpit and the front end of the plane is assumed to have landed somewhere else. Hoping to find the cockpit and the radio, a search party assembles and goes into the jungle looking for it. At the top of a hill wreckage is seen in the distance. The search party heads for it.
The group encounters hazards that result in the death of one of the searchers. When they get to the plane wreckage they realize it is not their plane. The group has no choice but to continue on their search. They find another plane but again it is not their plane. Along their journey the members of the party are picked off one by one by creatures on the island. It's not until the group is captured by a tribe with strange rituals that everyone ends up being a potential sacrifice to a flock of dragons.
Supposedly based on Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Lost World" most people believe is resembles Peter Jackson's remake of "King Kong". The movie reminded me of the television show “Lost” more than it did “King Kong” or "The Lost World". It starts out after an airplane crashes so there isn’t much in the way of character development. The only character that had any depth to it was Bruce Boxleitner’s. Until the end you were never really sure if he was a good guy or a bad guy. As for the others, I never even paid attention to any of their names although some were named for characters in Doyle's story.
That’s OK cause your not watching it for the drama. You’re looking for monsters. Specifically the giant gorilla since the movie is named for it. Unfortunately the gorilla, except for a few seconds in the beginning, doesn’t really make an appearance until almost the end. Fortunately he is not the only monster. There are giant spiders, giant (and small) scorpions, man eating vines and dragons. (but alas no dinosaurs.)
The gorilla is not the best CG I’ve seen but the other monsters are much better. Unfortunately the interaction between the monsters and the people is not well defined so you don’t get a good sense of what actually is happening in any given action scene. On the whole the editing, including the action sequences, was a little disjointed so sometimes the transition from scene to scene was not as smooth as it should be. For example, some of the survivors decide to stay with the plane and some set out looking for the cockpit. What happened to the people who stayed with the plane was a quick 15 or 20 second scene that you could miss if you blinked. Again, the editing could have been better. It goes to show that one crucial element could make a possible great movie into just an OK movie. I understand this is a “B” movie, but it could have been a really good “B” movie.
As far as other special effects, there wasn’t much blood or gore. What was there was mostly in dark caves or at night in the jungle. There were some “F” bombs and a few boob shots so I guess that’s why it got the “R” rating.
Despite the flat characters and bad editing I did enjoy the monsters. What I could see of them. And the acting was decent. If you’re just looking for monsters and you don’t mind not having things flow smoothly you might enjoy this movie, but don’t expect Oscar material.