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.
Quoting megladon8 (view post)
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