An exclusive look at AZTEC REX — Premieres Saturday on SciFi

Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Writer: Richard Manning
Starring: Ian Ziering, Shawn Lathrop, Milan Tresnak, Marc Antonio, Dichen Lachman, Jack McGee

I admire Brian Trenchard-Smith more than most directors that I’ve made contact with. It’s not a personal thing. I’ve liked the vast majority of industry people who I’ve had the chance to speak with at length. Trenchard-Smith is at the top of my list because of the beauty that he sees in the genre film. There’s a reason why he is one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite directors, and it’s not because of the way he frames his angles or any of that nonsense. He knows that he’s not making high art. For example, Omega Code 2 could’ve been a drab, pointless, religious ‘epic’ like The Asylum’s 2012: Doomsday. With Trenchard-Smith at the helm, however, every actor seemed to have their volume turned up. The movie was fun to watch not because it had a great script, but because he had his feet firmly planted in the genre of the Christian epic and made a movie that was simply fun to watch. Dave Payne once told me, probably on the podcast, that when he was working for Corman in the 90s he found that many of the employees strived to make their movies bad. Trenchard-Smith doesn’t do this. He strives to take his movies, regardless of the budgets and talents involved, to a level where the average fan of the particular genre or genres he’s working in will have themselves a good, easily digestible 90 minutes of entertainment.

Aztec Rex, known internationally under the glorious title of Tyrannosaurus Azteca, is Trenchard-Smith’s twenty-first century take on The Valley of Gwangi, a 1969 movie that he cut the trailer for way back when about a cowboy who tries to capture a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a foreign land in order to place it in a Mexican circus. Aztec Rex keeps the foreign land idea and the main antagonist, but it takes the scenery to a completely different place. He made the movie in Hawaii, and its beautiful, lush landscape (captured by DP Paul Atkins) provides the backdrop of what I believe is supposed to be the 16th century in a land that has been untainted by the hands of Europeans.

Up until now that is. Captain Cortes (a virtually unrecognizable Ziering) and six of his men have set out to an unexplored part of the world in hopes of finding not just gold, but natives to rape of their land and religious freedom who can mine the gold for them. They find natives, but in place of gold there is a giant dinosaur that devours one of their horses, leaving only a leg behind. The natives have managed to keep “peace” with the monster by making a human sacrifice each night. When one of Cortes’ men wounds the monster that peace is disturbed and the monster is now ready for blood. The natives are also looking for blood, with one of them believing that the only way to save their society is to sacrifice not one, but all of Cortes’ men, Cortes included. Eventually a deal is struck, whereby the successful killing of the monster will lead to their freedom.

Aztec Rex has an extremely hot first half. There is a human sacrifice, a swordfight, a fiery performance by Dichen Lachman, tension between the Europeans and the natives, light character development that makes most characters recognizable, and some gory dinosaur deaths. In fact, the first half of Aztec Rex is almost a movie in and of itself, complete with what appears to be a conclusion.

The movie doesn’t end there though. It continues for another forty minutes or so, and these forty minutes often feel like they belong to a different movie. Even though the central conflict remains the vanquishing of the creature, there’s way too much attention paid to the conflicts among the humans.

As is the case with most SciFi movies, there are going to be a lot of people online complaining about the CGI creature upon its airing. Whatever. At times the creature looks awesome, and then there are times where it’s safe to assume that some shots were rushed. This is not a sign of technical incompetence, but simply a lack of money and time on the part of the effects company. This isn’t Jurassic Park. It’s Aztec Rex, a SciFi Channel Premiere movie, and I was more than satisfied with the effects.

I should note here as well that Trenchard-Smith is not afraid to pack on the red stuff. It’s not done in a “Zoom in on the limb as its removed from the body to gross you out” way, but rather in an often light-hearted “This is what it looks like when a dinosaur bites off your leg” way. This brand of humor plays into one of my favorite parts of the movie. While I didn’t catch much of his backstory, there is a Spanish monk who lives with the natives. At one point in the movie he explains why the natives they didn’t kill him. “I made myself useful. I taught Spanish to Matlal, Ayacoatl, and Xoxocin [younger characters in the film], convincing them that someday they would need it and I was right,” which indicates that the natives and the Spanish explorers were communicating in Spanish.

Keep in mind that the Spanish explorers speak English throughout the entire movie. This line was awesome and I imagine I won’t be the only person to be caught off guard by it.

Compared to the cinematic drek that tends to find its home on the SciFi Channel, Aztec Rex is a masterpiece. Compared to other movies in its budget range of a million dollars or so, Aztec Rex is still better than most, with its first half being among the best times I’ve had with a SciFi Channel movie in many, many months.

Aztec Rex premieres on the SciFi Channel this Saturday night at 9 PM EST. You can check out his appearance on the Your Video Store Shelf Podcast, and check out his excellent blog at Film Industry Bloggers.