Dino-noir
Eric Garcia wrote three books concerning modern day dinosaurs “Anonymous Rex”, “Casual Rex”, and “Hot and Sweaty Rex”. I read the books years ago and loved them. Recently I found out that a movie had been made from one of them. As with any book there is only so much you can do to compress it’s essence into movie form. You need to have an appreciation for Eric Garcia’s books as well as understand of the limitations of SYFY channel’s movie budgets, (or just a love of all things dinosaur) to fully enjoy the movie “Anonymous Rex.”
Although the movie is called “Anonymous Rex” it is actually loosely based on his second book “Casual Rex”. “Casual Rex” is a prequel to “Anonymous Rex”. In the movie dinosaurs never totally went extinct. Instead they downsized and disguised themselves so as to blend in with humans.
Two Gumshoe dinosaur detectives, Vincent Rubio (Sam Trammell) a velociraptor and Ernie Watson (Daniel Baldwin) a triceratops, uncover a conspiracy while investigating the staged suicide of another dinosaur. During their investigation they stumble onto a dinosaur faction that is called “Voice of Progress”. Their mission is to bring about an Armageddon that brings the dinos out of hiding to reclaim the planet and rule over mankind or “Apes” as they are referred to. As the dino detectives unravel the clues to what really happened to the “apparent suicide” of their friend, one of them is hiding a secret of his own.
Since I love movies with dinosaurs I naturally loved this one. Do not expect a lot of special effects here. The real fun is in believing what you can not see. Although the tone is a departure from Garcia’s books it does have a uniqueness all its own. I have heard it referenced that Eric Garcia’s “Rex” books have been referred to as dino-noir. Sounds about right to me.