Mutant Chronicles (2008)

Director:

Simon Hunter

Writer (WGA):

Philip Eisner (written by)

Release Date:

7 August 2008 (Russia)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The darkest age is yet to come. Have faith.

Plot:

28th century soldier Mitch Hunter leads a fight against an army of underworld Mutants.

Plot Keywords:

Mutant | Soldier | Corporation | Suicide | Faith

Cast

Thomas Jane	...	Maj. 'Mitch' Hunter
Ron Perlman	...	Brother Samuel
Devon Aoki	...	Cpl. Valerie Duval
Sean Pertwee	...	Capt. Nathan Rooker
Benno Fürmann	...	Lt. Maximillian von Steiner
John Malkovich	...	Constantine
Anna Walton	...	Severian
Tom Wu	...	Cpl. Juba Kim Wu
Steve Toussaint	...	Capt. John McGuire
Luis Echegaray	...	Cpl. Jesus 'El Jesus' de Barrera
Pras	...	Captain Michaels (as Pras Michel)
Shauna Macdonald	...	Adelaide
Roger Ashton-Griffiths	...	Science Monk
Christopher Adamson	...	Hodge
Nicholas Ball	...	Plutocrat

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | South Korea:18 | UK:18 | Ireland:16 | Germany:18 | USA:R | Finland:K-15 | Singapore:M18 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Edward R. Pressman Film

Trivia:

The character 'Lt. Maximillian von Steiner' get his name from famous movie composer Max Steiner (King Kong (1933), Casablanca (1942) and hundreds more).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: With 11:04 remaining in the fight between Brother Samuel and Maj. 'Mitch' Hunter, the camera cuts to an over head shot where both of Ron Perlman hands can clearly be seen, with out the mutated arm.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of 'Mutant Chronicles' (2009) (V)

Visually impressive, if derivative, futuristic thriller

It's hard not to notice the parallels between "The Mutant Chronicles" and "Aliens": a team of soldiers, plus a few outsiders with deeper knowledge of the subject, are sent on a suicide mission (not to outer space but) deep beneath the surface of the earth to destroy (not bloodthirsty alien monsters and their source but) bloodthirsty zombie mutants and their source. The film is not quite as good as "Aliens", but it's still a serviceable B-movie. Visually it succeeds in creating its own, richly detailed and impressively designed, world: that includes the mutants themselves, who have one of their arms extended to a huge claw that can cut human flesh to pieces. The action itself, however, is a bit too chaotically edited: sometimes things happen and you don't have enough time to see how they happened, or a battle takes place and you're not absolutely sure who is hitting whom. This seems to be a recent trend in action movies (the latest Bond film "Quantum Of Solace" really suffers from it), and I hope they reverse it soon. The cast is good, though the characters are definitely not as memorable as those of "Aliens". Ron Perlman's best moments come near the end, while Devon Aoki and Anna Walton are unconventionally attractive and fully combative female leads. (**1/2)