"The Mutant Chronicles" Review - Written by Kelsey Zukowski

Starring: Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, John Malkovich, Anna Walton
Directed By: Simon Hunter
Written By: Philip Eisner
Released: 2008
Grade: C

The Mutant Chronicles is a film based on a role playing game played as well as comics that came shortly after. The film takes place in the future in 2707. It is a war film that turns in to a survival and destruction movie where the existence of every person on earth ends up being at stake.

The world is being ran by four major corporations: The Capitol, Bauhaus, Mishima, and Imperial. All of the resources have been used up for the most part and left things in a poor state. A major state of war has waged between the corporations because of this, battling for the few resources that are left and feeble attempts at making more money. During one of the battles a new enemy emerges that proves to be even more dangerous, necrmutants. Millions of them emerge and begin killing everything in site. There is no hope for anyone to have a chance against these creatures so the corporations leader, Constantine (Malkovich), is about to leave the planet in hopes of reaching safety somewhere far away and in the process leaving every innocent life behind to fend for themselves. Brother Samuel (Perlman), keeper of the mutant chronicles, is able to reason with him though. This book that he holds speaks of the rise of the mutants and the ‘deliverer’who is the only chance to stop the mutants from killing everyone. Samuel tells him that he is the one who must stop the mutants by attacking them deep down under the earth and attack their source of power. A handful of determined and tough fighters have been recruited to accompany Constantine on his journey to destroy the mutants before they destroy everyone while those still left are sent to be evacuated off Earth.

The visuals of the film were one of the few successes The Mutant Chronicles had. The CGI effects were realistic enough for what was called for and gave the movie a bold look. The biggest achievement of the look of the movie was the play with black and white. Even when there were other colors present the black and white created the framework, making the other colors seem out of place and served as a symbol that something was not right and danger was coming. The dark setting showed just that, that there was evil everywhere even before the bigger enemy came in to the story. There was a very grim and depressing feel to the movie and the shading brought out the fact that this is the type of place that the world has become.

There are some good representations shown in the film. One are the corporations themselves. The fact that four corporations are running the world and have turned the world in to a complete war zone filled with brutality and no remorse at all says a lot. For one thing it hints that when capitalism is taken to the extreme of hunger for money and power, that the society turns in to a dictatorship more than anything. In this state competition turns to war. Resources are used so rapidly with any care or consideration, but one day, as the corporations realize, they will run out and the Earth is just about at that point in 2707. Rather then trying to find some alternative or solution to this, they fight for the little amount that is left and when further danger ensues they abandon hope and selfishly try to run away without a thought about the well being of anyone else. Now adding deadly mutants to this setting and it leaves little hope. However, having this hope is just about the only thing others can do as the safety of every person depends on the destruction of the mutants.

Although, The Mutant Chronicles show potential, it is a vastly flawed film. One of the biggest problems is that we are narrated some background information and just about all of the story is covered in the beginning of the film. Once this happens there really aren’t any new major developments in the story. There is just the question of will they succeed or not. This doesn’t really leave anywhere for the movie to go until the very end and causes a major lack of interest until the movie is able to get there. Another reason why it is hard to care about the film is that there is a major lack of character development. There isn’t even a main character that we are able to see this world from their eyes. The characters that are dealt with are giving much more action than reason. Sure, we want them to succeed since that means the salvation of everyone in the world. However, there is no one we are able to identify with or feel for, making the film feel emotionless and hollow.

There are a few examples of the greed that literally rules the world when the story first begins. However, this is a vastly wasted concept since it wasn’t taken advantage of and explored. The world even without the mutants is a dreary and unmoral place that runs on greed, viciousness, and selfishness. This was the most interesting aspect of the film, but unfortunately after a few mentions of it, it was never dealt with or really shown further. The mutants’ ploy to destroy all remaining humans is surely evil, but a comparison between that and the state of Earth to show how dark and horrifying it was on its’ own could have been the very thing that saved the film. The Mutant Chronicles succeeds through its’ striking and very appropriate visuals and shows potential as it shows representations of very important themes, yet through a lack of development of many aspects of the movie it is ultimately uninteresting and falls short.