Mutant Chronicles (2008)

Director:

Simon Hunter

Writer (WGA):

Philip Eisner (written by)

Release Date:

7 August 2008 (Russia)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Horror | 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 | Battle | Fight

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 | Japan:R15+

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Edward R. Pressman Film

Trivia:

Mitch Hunter's rank insignia on his lapels is actually the insignia of a U.S. Army Sergeant First Class (E-7), just flipped upside-down.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the end after Brother Samuel tells Mitch Hunter to jump and have faith, the camera cuts back to Brother Samuel still laying on the round key table, with his mutated right hand now showing normal, whereas it was mutated in the scenes before.

Movie Connections:

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

Lord Of The Rings... In the future... With less walking. And story.

I watched this film because Ron Perlman's in it and i'm always buoyed by seeing a man who looks like a gorilla act so well. I had no idea it's based on some kind of role-playing franchise, and frankly, i'm glad i didn't. To be honest i probably wouldn't have watched it if i did. After having just sat through it, i thought i should add a positive review because well, i liked it. I was a good film. The Mutant Chronicles did kind of remind me of Lord Of The Rings (bite your lips fanboys) because it got the plot out of the way pretty early on and the rest of the film was essentially spent trying to achieve the one valiant act that will save the day/world. Whereas LOTR is spread out over nine hours of character development (boy howdy are they noble, eh?) and beautiful scenery, The Mutant Chronicles chooses the less trodden path of gunfire, disposable characters and mutants. The film takes place in 2127 in a dystopian future where two of the four corporations who run the world accidentally let loose an ancient evil into the world. Cue some wacky bloodthirsty mutants overrunning the general population and generally being a nuisance. As the rich survivors escape to Mars, a small group of nihilistic ass-kickers and religious nuts travel to the centre of the Earth to stop the catastrophe, showcasing an amazingly short grieving process along the way. Just about every location is computer generated. Rather well i thought, though i know there are those who strongly disagree. The shortcomings of the CGI are helped along by a very dark look and feel with a fairly monochrome palette being preferred with the exceptions of some reds and blues (think Sin City). The Mutant Chronicles may well be a minor stylistic triumph, not letting itself get bogged down in plot, character development and all that important stuff. It seems as though the film makers settled on making it a pretty cool movie. And it is.