Tyrannosaurus Azteca

Sometimes you just want to watch a dubious SyFy movie about a tyrannosaur in an unlikely setting. And sometimes the very first appearance of the computer-generated lizard makes you regret your decision. It's not that I had high expectations at any point, but I thought there was potential in the concept. Instead - despite my commitment to watching - by the time only ten minutes had passed I had all but given up hope. 'Aztec Rex,' also known as 'Tyrannosaurus Azteca,' is dull, boring, cliched, and altogether questionable.

The costume design, makeup work, and set design are okay. The filming locations are gorgeous. Unfortunately, that's the closest I can come to offering praise, and otherwise the picture can be best described as specious and flimsy. With little variation, the conquistadors are unquestionably the villains of the story, as they are in real-life history, and this is cemented by imperialist musings and racism. The writing also reflects racist overtones in how the Aztecs are written, to say nothing of the direly weak excuse given for how the Spaniards and the indigenous people can understand each other. The dialogue, narrative, and scene writing are hackneyed and tedious, flagging and dragging from the very start as they contribute to meager pacing - and are almost entirely defined by tropes. This is true not least of all in regards to supporting character Ayacoatl, who as the only woman to appear on-screen with meaningful storytelling substance is obligated to embody every archetype of female characters, no matter how contrived.

Everyone in the cast does the best they can with the material they're given, but considering how appallingly thin and empty the writing is, their best can scarcely begin to make a difference. This particularly goes for Dichen Lachman as Ayacoatl - she tries to infuse her role with earnest nuance and personality, but more than anything else I feel sorry for her as she's stuck in this production, and her effort broadly comes across as overacting just as much as some of her costars (if in a different way). As wholly unbelievable as the CGI tyrannosaur appears, and the violence associated with it, the costume design that already barely passes muster sometimes weirdly bears the appearance of itself being created with green-screen effects. Speaking of effects, the most basic tangible blood or gore we see looks good, but the more grand it is, the less convincing it becomes. Meanwhile, Brian Trenchard-Smith's direction, and the fundamental orchestration and execution of most scenes, mostly feels pointedly stilted, halfhearted, and lacking.

It's very possible to enjoy movies like 'Aztec Rex.' Sometimes they're duly sincere with sufficient hard work put into them that, if imperfect, means they're very entertaining. At other times, whether intentionally over the top or accidentally flailing, such titles can be fun because they come across as (bad) B-movies. In this instance, however, the concatenation of every flaw and shortcoming is so overwhelming that the picture is robbed of almost all possible value. I won't say that it's entirely bereft - the climax is actually pretty well done - but the end result here is so desperate and trying as a viewing experience that it can surely be recommendable only for the profoundly curious or the immensely bored. 'Aztec Rex' certainly isn't the worst of all possible movies, and I wish I could say that I like it more than I do, but it's close enough that I'm forced to second-guess my choices in life.

I'll bet none of you knew that the famous Conquistador Hernando Cortes made a preliminary scouting expedition to Mexico before taking on the Aztecs. Good thing he did because he would never have known about those T Rexs that inhabited one particular valley where the locals revered them as gods.

That was understandable. What wasn't was the casting of blue eyed Ian Ziering as Cortes. Even with the blond hair made famous in Beverly Hills 90210 dyed black, Ian looked positively ridiculous. At least he made no attempt at a Spanish accent.

The real hero of Tyrannosaurus Azteca is Marco Sanchez also late of a television series with a semi-recurring role in Walker Texas Ranger as Detective Sandoval of the Dallas PD. He finds true love with an Aztec princess and life would be just perfect if it wasn't for those pesky prehistoric beasts the natives worship.

Tyrannosaurus Azteca looks like they used some outtakes from the famous Sid&Marty Krofft series the Land of the Lost. All that was needed was some Sleestak to appear.

If you're interested in finding out about this reconnoitering expedition that didn't quite make the history books by all means check out Tyrannosaurus Azteca. Then try and sit through it with a straight face.

To be fair they did as well as they could with a budget of five shillings and sixpence, but the dialogue was more cheesy than 9lbs of emmental and the CGI was a little old hat now. maybe if some of the actors were not so perfectly chiselled out of granite it would have made the film a little better too.. To say this was awful is to do this film a mis-service, if you want to see something that is totally execrable, you gotta sit and waste a couple of hours of your life watching 'sickle', that is soo mind numbingly awful, its actually good,(several large alcoholic beverages are deriguer though. Any road up, I enjoyed this film and its gotta be worth a look if you have not seen it yet, just don't expect anything along the lines of 'jurassic park,the lost world' or 'apocalypto'.

I LOVE these Sci-Fi Channel movies. But usually when I say they are "good", what I mean is that they were bad, but in an entertaining way. But this, this turned my whole world upside down. It was actually... almost... sort of... gosh, kind of good (and I don't mean 'bad' this time).

Well first, let me get this out of the way - I think it is only fair to rate a movie independently of what it is about - if someone wants to make a movie about googly eyed pet rocks, you should then rate it based on how well they accomplished what they set out to do - not give it a 1 just because it's about googly eyed pet rocks. So in that light, realize that yes, this is about Spanish explorers meeting Aztecs who worship a dinosaur who has apparently survived for millions of years in their valley. But no, it doesn't deserve a bad rating just because of the ridiculous plot.

So with that said, the movie easily deserves an 8 because of its pretty decent special effects, pretty decent acting, pretty decent story, and highly entertaining result. The key for the viewer is being able to get past the silly premise - if you can do that, I guarantee you will enjoy yourself.

With nothing better to do I decided to check out "Aztec Rex" (as it was being billed) for the hell of it.

The silly story might have played better if the dinosaur effects were convincing. They actually looked like animatics (those rough designs that artists later use to finish the CGI effects, adding more details, smoother movements, etc.) Absolutely awful-looking dinosaurs, which is the only reason you'd probably want to sit through this anyway.

The one redeeming factor was the lovely Dichen Lachman as Ayacoatl. She kept my interest; if only the budget had been ramped up and some convincing dinosaurs could have been used.

Disappointing. At least the cast and crew got a free trip to Hawaii, where the movie was filmed.