I realize that viewing audiences are reaching the point of mental exhaustion with respect to movies based on games – video or otherwise – with the plethora of movies coming from Hollywood and around the world, once development executives realized that there was another world out there to be mined for profit. This is very unfortunate because when a movie does finally come around that does the genre justice, no one sees it. This is what did happen, has happened and will continue to happen to Mutant Chronicles and that is a very sad thing.
Once again in the minority, I loved this movie. Loosely based on a ‘board’ game (role-playing, but not full-on D&D) of the same name it is the post-apocalyptic tale of what happens when a world at war suddenly has a new enemy. I must say that the plot for this movie is actually quite complex and epic, but we’re guided through it with ease using a narrator you trust immediately and visual aids. I will do my best to encapsulate the basic premise, while still not spoiling anything. Set 700 years in the future, the year 2707, it is explained that the world went to war with itself and the result was four corporations, rather than countries, all of whom remain at war with one another to gain supremacy. At the time that these four corporations were originally formed, a meteor fell to Earth and brought with it the ultimate in evil, the mutants of the title. A horrible race they take the dead of their host planet (in this case humans) and reanimate them into mutant killing machines whose only goal, it would seem, is total domination of the host world. A sect of monks takes matters into their own hands and places a seal over the hole in the Earth where the meteor crashed, effectively stopping the mutants and keeping the entire meteor in stasis, hopefully never to be awakened. But this is the movies so during a particularly hopeless battle between the American corporation and the German corporation the seal is broken and mankind has a new enemy. Once this occurs the leader of the original monk sect enlists a number of servicemen (and women) to create an elite team on a suicide mission to go to the centre of the crater and deliver a doomsday device they hope will eradicate the mutants from Earth.
Whew.
And that’s just the first 25 minutes or so. My point is that it’s epic. And interesting. It engages the viewer and creates likable enough characters that you want to go with them on this journey. You’re interested in what’s going to happen next. It doesn’t rely on the fast paced, must keep things on the screen moving at breakneck speed while sacrificing the plot mentality of many a recent action film. It’s no Lord of the Rings, but it doesn’t aim to be. Solid performances are put in by all and parts were not over-written to accommodate a star. For instance, John Malkovich has was essentially amounts to a cameo in this movie, but his role could have been over-written to be a major role, which would have been a mistake. Ron Perlman plays the leader of the monks mentioned above and he does so with his classic nuances. Looking at his body of work you would imagine him to be a blunt instrument, incapable of subltety, but surely you’d be wrong. While the actual written words didn’t give much to work with he is actually the heart of this movie. He created a character through which I was willing to see past some of the more laughable moments and simply enjoy a man driven to a goal… to save makind. Tom Jane, as usual, puts in a solid performance, but I wish that people would offer him more roles like that in The Mist. A genre movie with an actual script. Unfortunately, his role in this movie – while meant to be the hero – was actually the only role that was UNDER-written. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and he’s enough of a professional to make it work, but I would have liked to see more.
It’s my understanding that this movie is in distribution hell right now, which is sad. I believe that if a distributor picked this up it would not only find an audience, but would make money. It’s a good movie and I think that the people who made this made it as a labour of love. I also think we should encourage them to make more.
