The Mutant Chronicles – Review

The Mutant Chronicles is a B-movie through and through, filled with all of the components one would expect from such a film, except one key ingredient: fun. Simon Hunter, the director here, goes literally all-out, balls-to-the-wall, for a what sticks type of approach to the film, and it is interesting to see what comes next. From the WWI elements to the futuristic world, The Mutant Chronicles adds creatures, gore, and a John Malkovich cameo, but feels more like a collection of note cards, than fully developed idea.Filmed in that every set is a green screen style recently made famous with 300, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, or Immortal, it certainly adds to the B-movie camp appeal, as it does give the film a certain style that over the course of its 110 minutes, I grew to like. For a world set in 2707, I think with the budget they had and Hunter’s ambition, this approach to making the film works. Not everyone is going to like it. I think most of the sets, or backgrounds, work. They look pretty good, but the one singular element that ruins the film is its poorly (and I mean poorly) rendered gore. Nothing ever beats out prosthetics and good old red colored syrup, and while CG might be quicker, it lacks that visceral punch I think the war scenes needed. Movies like this, a sci-fi war-actioner, are definitely in need of a suspension of disbelief. While I won’t criticize the look as a video game cut scene like most have, the CG bloodletting is Sci-Fi Channel, god awful.

Some of the more interesting ideas weren’t fully explored. I felt there was room to help make this film better, especially with the dynamics between Thomas Jane‘s character, a hell-bent, war ravaged hero, and the faith-based Brother Samuel, played by Ron Perlman. This religious state compiles a group of a Dirty Dozen like soldiers to go on a suicide mission to destroy this “machine” that is 10,000 years old. Alien in origin, it’s creating mutants that are over-running the world, a world even further over-run by war and corporations. Brother Samuel is deeply convinced this team will succeed, based on a “book” and his faith. Jane’s character is a hard-nose son-of-a-bitch: “I don’t get paid to believe, I get paid to f*ck shit up.” I wanted more with this component, but it’s quickly glossed over for gore and action.

That’s perfectly fine, but with all it has, it’s never really fun. How can a film about mutants, war, a futuristic world, and Ron Pearlman, not be fun? Because nothing ever comes together.

With a better script, we would’ve had a rocking genre picture. It’s not totally original, but it feels fresh enough. Crafting some old fashion squibs, eliminating some needless opening exposition, The Mutant Chronicles could have been that cool little flick you’d be telling your buddies about. Unfortunately, despite some tough guy heroics, a neat premise, it gets old before it finishes. 

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