Loosely based on a Swedish role playing game of the same title, this movie takes a small portion of the vast universe that was created in the 1990’s and brings it to the screen. With such great actors as Thomas Jane (currently starring in HBO’s series Hung), Ron Pearlman (Hellboy) and the infamous John Malkovich, Mutant Chronicles surely gives the franchise its best shot at making some impact in the sci-fi followers.
Based in an alternate future, 2707 to be exact, the feel of the movie is based on a lot of history and technology from our past. In this world and time, the Earth is divided by four corporations that control its entirety and are in a battle for domination and power. 10,000 years prior, a machine crashed into the Earth and unleashed its own power of killing the human species and disfiguring them by turning them to mutants. An order of monks and the people of that time sealed the hole from which the mutants would come and passed along the knowledge to future monks to ward off this attack. But when the seal to the machine is broken in an attack between the corporations, the seal is broken and the mutants flood the Earth once again. In a desperate attempt to destroy the machine, a monk from the order seeks out the perfect team of soldiers to attempt to eradicate the machine by planting a bomb on it.
This version of the film is encased as a 2 disc collector’s edition and is packed with an entire disc of extras. Although disc 1 only has the commentary from the director and Ron Pearlman, it’s the second disc that packs the bulk of extras including behind the scenes and anything you could possibly want to know about the film and its roots.
I was immediately intrigued with the premise of the film before I knew any of the background. It was interesting on how the vision of an alternate future relied on many of features of our past rather than to make up some new outlandish technology. Most of the machinery was based on coal generated steam and the war scenes were very reminiscent of the WWI era with all of the trench warfare and the darkness of it. There was a simplistic view on how people were turned into mutants and even the mutant itself wasn’t overdone. I did like this movie, however there were a few things I would have changed story wise. This is a decent sci-fi action movie and has a host of great actors to support it.
Reviewed by Michael Albaugh
