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Mutant Chronicles
Directed by: Simon Hunter Starring: Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, Sean Pertwee, John Malchovich, Anna Walton, Tom Wu Synopsis: The 23rd Century: four factions fight over the Earth’s remaining natural resources. A particularly grim battle on the border of Eastern Europe unwittingly uncovers an alien machine which has laid dormant for a thousand years, unleashing an army of mutant warriors on the world. As the world leaders evacuate Earth and head for other colonised worlds, a monk leads a small group of warriors to destroy the machine, deep in the earth...
Most of you will remember “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” from a few years back, a movie which was shot almost entirely on green screen with all the back-drops rendered using CGI. As I recall its main problem was that it was all spectacle and didn’t try to engage the audience on an emotional level. Mutant Chronicles has been filmed in much the same fashion, but the end result is much more successful.
First of all, the cast is exactly who you’d want to see in this sort of movie. I was very surprised and delighted to realise Sean Pertwee was one of the co-stars – as you all know, he’s a hero here at Flash-Bang. Thomas Jane is as excellent as ever, but Ron Perlman makes the movie for me. Considering he’s such a giant person, he’s actually a very versatile actor and gets to show a lot of range with this particular role. The supporting cast is also full of familiar actors and actresses. Devon Aoki actually gets to do something in this movie other than look pretty (which is all she was required to do in “War”); Anna Walton was recently seen as the Elf princess in Hellboy 2, and she puts those piercing eyes to good effect here. Last but not least, Tom Wu – he was the Chinese acrobat in Scorpion King 2 and has a particularly cool fight scene in an elevator. 
The artistic design of this movie is amazing and as much attention to detail has gone into making the movie’s environment as real as possible as I’ve seen in any big budget fantasy movie. The uniforms, weapons and battle environment are derived from the trenches of World War 1, except bigger and meaner. All the vehicles and flying machines are steam-driven, powered by sweat-soaked burly men shovelling coal into a furnace. It’s full of detail but the movie doesn’t over-dwell on it. It’s the mundanity of it which makes it all the more real. The palette the movie uses is very subdued and washed out. It’s a little like Sweeny Todd or the aforementioned Sky Captain, but like Sweeney Todd the colour of blood is made to stand out prominently, and there’s plenty of it being sloshed across the screen. A lot of thought has gone into the concept of the mutants themselves, too. This isn't a mindless zombie plague - there is purpose to what they do and how they react. The humans don't automatically become mutants through contact - they are dragged back to the machine and genetically modified, in a similar fashion to The Borg from Star Trek.
I only have two problems with the movie as a whole. Firstly, there is too much narration, too much exposition to impart on the audience which could have been handled more visually. Second, there are a few too many camera zooms, through windows either entering or leaving a scene. I suppose its only natural, having designed such an impressive city-scape that you’d want to explore it a little, but a bit of restraint wouldn’t have hurt. One of the things that fascinates me is the concept of heroism, what it is to be a hero – the choices they make and the reasons and beliefs behind them. This movie examines that to a certain extent through its characters and their mission. There are some particularly iconic images in this movie that have a real emotional impact.
Verdict: B-Movie film-making as it should be: a great cast, a high attention to artistic detail and lots of cool action scenes. It’s great to see something truly different to the norm. 7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)
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