Director Mark Lester’s giant monster movie is a mix of rock bottom budgets and mediocre common sense. It’s a classic B monster movie about muscle bound pirates, busomy scientists, and a military battling a gigantic monster while operating out of a tool shed with only three people manning the helm. You also have to love how so much hoopla is raised about Poseidon Rex, with the military set to nuke the entire island that’s held Poseidon Rex, only for our busomy heroine to kill it single handedly with a missile launcher. How did no one think of that? What of its eggs in the bottom of the ocean? Also, how can divers talk while their lips are wrapped around air regulators?
Jackson Slate is a pirate and diver who has been hired by a Jamaican cartel to go in to the ocean and mine for gold and treasure. When he and his group blow open a hole that gives them access to Mayan gold, they also unleash the horrific Poseidon Rex. Part fish and part iteration of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, it gobbles up Slate’s crew, leaving him for dead in its carnage. Meanwhile a young couple are preparing to go sailing for the day and stumble across Slate’s body, where they learn of his ties to criminals, and his close encounter with the giant monster.
The monster–codenamed Poseidon Rex by busomy marine biologist Sarah—begins to wreak havoc along the waters and land, prompting Slate to team up with the tourists and take it down. The gang members are also on track of Slate, who they think stole their gold. All the while the military seemingly stands back and monitors the monster doing absolutely nothing until the very end. Slate and co. steal the dinosaur’s eggs trying to figure out its biology, and realize it plans to spawn over a dozen of the angry lizards on the world, all the while P-Rex stomps around angrily, and chomps up boats and humans like it’s going out of style.
Director Lester tries hard to work around the very low budget, but it’s tough considering many of the cast members are sub-par performers with zero charisma. I didn’t find a single character in the bunch worth liking, or even empathizing with. They’re so boring and bland, they barely react to deaths of their friends while combating the monster. Nothing about “Poseidon Rex” is blatantly good or bad, it’s just a very middling generic giant monster movie that seems to have been created to settle a contract. P-Rex is a boring monster, the gangster sub-plot is derivative, and a lot of the sub-plots are left hanging in the air unresolved. “Poseidon Rex” is pseudo-Roger Corman fodder with no elements to it that stand out, save for the title that sums up the basic premise.
The DVD only features an eight minute Behind the Scenes with interviews and footage of the filming.