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Released by: Magnolia Films
Released on: 8/4/2009
Director: Simon Hunter
Cast: Ron Perlman, Thomas Jane, Devon Aoki, Sean Pertwee, Benno Furmann, John Malkovich, Anna Walton
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Based on the role playing game (and subsequent series of board games and comic books) of the same name, The Mutant Chronicles is set in the future of 2707 where four corporations - Bauhaus, Mishima, Capital and Imperial - now control the entire world - they're also perpetually at war with one another. During a skirmish between Capital and Bauhaus (that plays out very much like a scene from a World War II film) a seal in the earth is opened and a machine beneath that surface that lay dormant for untold years stars up again. The machine's resurrection results in a big problem for the scraps of mankind that remain on earth - it turns them into vicious mutants!
With the mutant population on the rise and those who have been lucky enough to get a pass to take them to a different planet leaving the earth for good, the humans that are left are in dire straits indeed. A religious leader, Brother Samuel (Ron Perlman), believes in an ancient prophecy that tells of a group of brave warriors who go into the heart of the machine with a bomb to stop it for good and so he goes about gather together the finest soldiers he can from the four different factions. After visiting with the city leader, Constantine (John Malkovich who is in the movie for about two minutes), he arranges for an aircraft to take he and his small group of soldiers - Major Mitch Hunger (Thomas Jane), Corporal Valerie Duval (Devon Aoki), Lt. Maximillian von Steiner (Benno Furmann), Corporal Juba Kim (Tom Wu), Captain John McGuire (Steve Toussaint), Captain Jesus de Barrera (Luis Echegaray), and the silent but dangerous Severian (Anna Walton) - into the fray to save the day.
Of course, this suicide mission can't be easy and the aircraft crashes before it reaches their destination killing one of their ranks right off the bat. As the group heads towards their destination, humanity's last hope has to deal with human corruption and mutant threats from all sides in a race against time to finish their mission before it's too late.
Take a bunch of your favorite action and horror movies and throw them into a blender and you've got The Mutant Chronicles. The film feels like Resident Evil, The Dirty Dozen, 300, Aliens and Dawn of the Dead all at the same time and it doesn't exactly win a lot of points in the originality department - but with that said, the film doesn't need to. The film starts off with a goofy fantasy sequence that sets up the whole 'prophecy' angel and from there cranks along full tilt until the finale. It's incredibly fast paced, not bothering with small details like characterization or plot development, instead kicking us in the balls repeatedly with action, carnage, and chaos.
Composed, like Repo! The Genetic Opera and 300, with a LOT of CGI work, the film never once feels even remotely realistic but neither does it try. The actors don't show much range, but they do kick a lot of ass and that goes a long way towards redeeming this plotless behemoth. It's hard not to have fun with this one when it's got all this creative slaughter set against a steampunk backdrop, particularly when you've got Thomas Jane snarling and sneering his way alongside a couple of lookers like Devon Aoki and Anna Walton providing some eye candy. This ain't deep, folks, this is mindless escapism, certainly no more but thankfully no less. It's big, loud, dumb as a rock and a whole lot of stupid fun. Yes it's repetitive to a fault and about twenty minutes too long but it delivers a lot of gooey, gory monster mash action and for some of us, that's enough (as long as you keep your expectations firmly in check).
Video/Audio/Extras:
The anamorphic 1.85.1 VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer for Mutant Chronicles looks good once you get used to the film's strange color schemes. Black levels are rich and strong and detail is quite impressive when it wants to be. The film has had a lot of post production tweaking done to it to give it a very stylized look so you won't get the clarity that you find in some HD releases but rather something more akin to a comic book come to life. There aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement to note nor are there any issues with shimmering or moiré. Skin tones look as odd as they should given the film's storyline, not natural at all, but that's how it should be, really. Think of this, visually speaking, as a cross between 300 and Repo! The Genetic Opera and you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track on this disc kicks all kinds of ass! There's constant activity coming at you from all directions and the action sequences pack just the right amount of punch to carry some genuine impact. Dialogue is clean and clear and there's plenty of tight, bouncy, bass response to provide a full lower end, you'll really notice this during the ship crash before the warriors head into the bowels of the city. There's a lot of detail in the sound mix, from the ambient noise to the various instruments used in the music, and all of this comes through very clearly. Optional subtitles are provided in English, and Spanish.
Magnolia stacks their Blu-ray release with a lot of supplements starting with a commentary track from director Simon Hunter and lead actor Ron Perlman. This is a decent enough listen as it talks about how the various parties came on board and got involved in the project and discusses some of the more memorable set pieces in some detail.
More interesting is a lengthy making-of documentary that shows how many of the computer generated effects were taken care of, how the stunts were handled ,how the set design was done and more. Complimenting this nicely are a couple of shorter effects-centric pieces and a few nifty comparison featurettes that show what the film looked like before and after all the digital tinkering. Some individual cast and crew interviews give the principal players a chance to shoot the shit about what they did in the movie
Also worth watching is a nifty promotional short film that Hunter made to generate interest in the project. It's basically just the opening war sequence but it's here with or without an optional commentary from the director. Interestingly enough, the mutant design in this shorter version is much cooler than the Resident Evil knock off creatures we see in the feature version. There's also a brief making-of featurette that shows what went into making the promotional short, some storyboards, a question and answer panel from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con Q&A, a selection of deleted scenes, a promo spot that aired on HDNet to promote the film, and a collection of eighteen minutes worth of webisodes that aren't really all that interesting.
The Final Word:
Turn off your brain, suck backs some beers and enjoy this ridiculous movie for what it is. The Blu-ray disc looks alright and sounds even better and it's loaded with extras, while the feature itself, is incredibly dumb as it may be, is a lot of goofy, gory fun.