Anonymous Rex: If it were better done, it might not have gone extinct...

Forget going medieval. They

Based on the second in what sounds like a very interesting series of books by Eric Garcia, Anonymous Rex could have been the pilot for a very funny, original television series. If there had been a little more work on the script, and a little more love in the CGI on the dinos, we would've had something great. Instead it's a watchable, mostly entertaining detective flick which happens to feature dinosaurs as the main characters.

Sam Trammell (now in HBO's True Blood) plays the lead, Vincent Rubio, a velociraptor teamed up with a triceratops for a partner in a detective agency. The stereotypical lifestyle of a 'private dick' is played up to the hilt, giving the movie almost a noir-ish feel. Throw in the dinosaur angle and you get scenes of the characters not taking shots of a stiff alcohol, but getting buzzed off herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme. Tarragon is so strong it's outlawed, which is naturally a major plot point.

The dinosaurs have evolved over the eons into smaller versions of their ancient forefathers. They're more advanced than humans (a.k.a. "apes") in many ways, including science and forensics. They've developed technology that allows them to blend in with humans unnoticed. Their numbers are few, but apparently they congregate in cities so they can sustain each other. That's about as much setup as they give us.

The film plays out like a a run of the mill detective story. Dame is in trouble, suckers in the older detective to help her for free. The investigation leads them into a deeper, darker mystery that could cost them their lives. Yada yada yada. For seasoning they throw in a dino cult called The Voice Of Progress which should have been much more interesting than it appeared on screen. This group thinks dinos should embrace their true natures and rise up against the humans. They never go into details how they would deal with the whole carnivore versus herbivore thing, but that was probably going to be saved for the series.

The figurehead of the cult is a beauty named Circe who also happens to be a velociraptor. When she and Vincent Rubio meet, we're supposed to believe the sparks fly. As the romance progresses we're treated to some visuals of flowers blooming that were supposed to be as sensual as a Georgia O'Keefe painting, but made me giggle instead. Sadly her character is used sparingly, to the point it seems she was only there to be eye candy.

The movie does itself a disservice by throwing in a ton of extra details that I'm sure would have panned out better if it had survived to be a series. Unfortunately since it didn't, they just add white noise. The ending is anti-climactic and disappointing, but again would have been fine if it had just survived into a series. Basically we're watching the pilot to a show that failed before it even started.

There is a lot of humor in Anonymous Rex, but it's not quite enough to save the whole affair. It's the cheap CGI that really ruins it. It has 'made for television' painted all over it, and is used so sparingly you can almost hear the accountant in the background yelling 'Hey! Hey! Hey! You've shown three seconds already! We're not made of money!'

This movie had so much potential to stand on its own that I am still fuming in frustration about it. The actors all played their parts really well, and had good chemistry with each other. The basic premise was very unique. There was a lot of humor throughout. The CGI, cheap as it was, at least got the point across. But because someone thought they had the go ahead to do a series, they gave us a ton of set up that goes nowhere.

I'm going to have to hunt down these books and give them a read in all of my spare time, because the Dinosaur Mafia sounds right up my alley. Too bad the movie wasn't crafted with as much love as the books. Now all I can do is shake my fist at the sky and ask 'Whyyyyyy?' in as good a show of histrionics as I can muster.