The Mutant Chronicles

[Dukefrukem]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHiOhKNXw_A (no post production)

http://www.mutantchroniclesthemovie.c om/

thoughts?

[megladon8]

This is one I've been looking forward to, mostly due to my fanboyism of Thomas Jane.

It looks like it could be pretty terrible, though. :cry:

[Sven]

Looks just this side of Bollish in its inept grunginess.

[Acapelli]

Didn't watch the trailer, but some of the casting is interesting.

[Dukefrukem]

It looks like it could be pretty terrible, though. :cry:

Yeh... i was pretty disappointed.

[Sycophant]

Fuck this. Where's Homeless Dad?

[Dukefrukem]

they put a trailer up on their website

http://www.mutantchroniclesthemovie.c om/

[megladon8]

Maybe that's just a poorly put together trailer, but that looks awful.

[EyesWideOpen]

I thought i read it was going straight to dvd.

[D_Davis]

Does this have anything to do with Milton-Bradley's version of Warhammer 40K that they used to sell at KB Toys?

[megladon8]

Redband trailer. (http://movies.ign.com/dor/objects/783116/mutant-chronicles/videos/mutantchronicles_redband_trail er_012209.html)

This looks like it could be one of the worst movies ever made.

And the amount of time they're taking to release it sure isn't raising my expectations. I remember a teaser trailer for this back in '06.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Not only does it look unbelievably stupid, but that was the weakest red band trailer I've ever seen.

[Dukefrukem]

It does look bad, but i like the way it looks.

[EvilShoe]

It does look bad, but i like the way it looks.
Duke, sometimes you make it too easy.

[Dukefrukem]

Duke, sometimes you make it too easy.

Haha c'mon. That was a joke. It looks like an awful movie. My kind of awful.

[[ETM]]

Not only does it look unbelievably stupid, but that was the weakest red band trailer I've ever seen.

Indeed. It's like an elaborate fan-trailer with crappy editing, video game cgi in 90% of the shots, and shots of actors spliced from different films.

[Acapelli]

this doesn't look anywhere near the worst movie ever made. and it looks like it does the most with its obviously low budget

that red band trailer was horribly edited though

[megladon8]

I like Ron Perlman and all, but his performance looks particularly horrible here.

"THERE IS STILL HOPE!"

*smashes book on table*

[[ETM]]

I like Ron Perlman and all, but his performance looks particularly horrible here.

"THERE IS STILL HOPE!"

*smashes book on table*

To his credit, there's not much you can do with that line.

[Dukefrukem]

August 4th DVD release

[Grouchy]

People, this movie rocks. Seriously.

[Skitch]

People, this movie rocks. Seriously.

Really? You saw it? I have hope that it will be cool, but with being in post-production hell for so long...one begins to doubt.

[Grouchy]

Really? You saw it? I have hope that it will be cool, but with being in post-production hell for so long...one begins to doubt.
I actually wrote a review for it when I first saw it. Here it is:


The Mutant Chronicles
Simon Hunter, 2008

This is the first movie I've heard of so far to be based on a pen-and-paper role game - also called The Mutant Chronicles. It shows. This is basically an adventure you could have with some friends over two evenings of hard playing. There's a badass soldier, a priest, a mute nun, two aggressive Asians, one Latino street fighter, an aristocratic kraut, a Black army dude and a gamemaster hell-bent on making their mission difficult for them. The end credits even describe some characters as "Science Monk" and "Plutocrat".

The only handicap this gaming origin visibly brings to the script, though, is the need to explain just a little too much exposition. The story is set in the year 2707, where the continents have been replaced with large corporations at constant war with each other. For some reason, their equipment and trenches are all in the fashion of WWI, only with more gunpower. In the introductory scene, well past the voice-over, the forces of Bauhaus (the multi-million dollar enterprise that replaced Europe) accidentally unleash a doomsday device, and with it a group of Mutants who have long bone-made blades instead of arms and which apparently move at super-speed. Tiny soldiers die, Thomas Jane only survivor. Back to the Middle Ages.

What? Yeah, this is the second sci-fi film this year to combine relatively modern warfare with Medieval stuff, the first being Doosmday. A group of Monks led by Ron Perlman, faced with the apparently unkillable armies of Mutants (like zombies, they also reproduce themselves, only through biotechnology since they're actually smart) unleash a secret - there's a prophecy that says that a man (a Deliverer) will be able to save mankind by throwing some sort of stone inside the Mutant-making mechanism. He's given permission by the dying Headmaster of the Corporation (a medieval king played by John Malkovich), he gathers his party and the movie starts.

Sounds complicated? It is. However, the script by Philip Eisner manages pretty well to deliver a mouthful of nonsensical information with that added drama that makes it work for the screen. It also helps that, in the 20-30 minutes before the mission starts, we have an acting powerhouse on screen - Jane, Perlman and Malkovich all deliver their lines with conviction and, in the case of Perlman, he even goes completely against type by playing a subdued, non-violent wise man. Of course, by the end, everyone will have their turn at kicking ass, specially Devon Aoki, who also has a less muderous character than those she usually gets since Sin City. The other great acting comes from Anna Walton as the mute nun, who co-acts again with Perlman from Hellboy II. She was the good Goblin sister in that.

The movie comes from the US, but it has an European feel and setting. The early scenes depicting carnage and suffering from the people of Bauhaus wouldn't be out of place on an actual World War movie. Babies are killed, mothers suffer, senseless violence, etc. In fact, it's all amazingly violent and gritty. The whole dramatic centerpoint of the film is whether the carnage depicted leads to every man for himself or if it makes sense to actually have faith in the power of humans united. You can guess the moral outcome. The film, however, proves to have faith at least on its characters and engages us constantly with them. They're dead-set on a suicide mission and that means constant casualties. The finale in particular is exciting as all Hell and it brings to mind the possibility of the game expanding to the videogame industry if this earns any money.

It can't all be flowers, though. The CGI looks, to be kind, unfinished. It's strange, because, as you probably guessed, almost every location is completely digital, but half of them looks great and the other half looks like a half-assed job done back in 1995. Since the release dates on IMDb are very few, I'm wondering if I didn't rent a work in progress. Regardless, I recommend The Mutant Chronicles. It's a lot better than Doomsday as a dystopian action extravaganza and the short runtime easily makes it one of the actioners of the year for me. It captures the great joy of going to the movies to watch an adventure film done right. In a year where an Indiana Jones movie couldn't even manage that, this will probably surprise you.

Since I wrote the review a friend pointed out to me that Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeon Siege came out before this, so my first paragraph is wrong. The rest still stands.

[Skitch]

Well consider my anticipation back up.

[D_Davis]

Since I wrote the review a friend pointed out to me that Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeon Siege came out before this, so my first paragraph is wrong. The rest still stands.

Dungeon Siege is a PC game, so you were more right.

:)

I actually want to see this.

[Lasse]

It's been out on DVD here since March. I hated it. :frustrated:

[Dukefrukem]

I blind bought this on DVD 2 years ago and finally watched it last night...

I'm trying to figure out how they were able to get the likes of Perlman and Jane. in the only scene with Malkovich, he looks uninterested. Not something I would ever watch again.

[eternity]

Yeah, this was bad.

[Rowland]

I'm trying to figure out how they were able to get the likes of Perlman
:lol: Have you seen his IMDB page? The guy can be great when paired with worthy material and a strong filmmaker (case in point: I just rewatched The Last Winter), but I'm pretty sure he says yes to almost any project that offers him money.

[Dukefrukem]

:lol: Have you seen his IMDB page? The guy can be great when paired with worthy material and a strong filmmaker (case in point: I just rewatched The Last Winter), but I'm pretty sure he says yes to almost any project that offers him money.

I guess I haven't seen much of his work then.