Movie Preview: Mutant Chronicles

Some movies look good. Some movies have great plots. And then there are movies that are modified copies of some other form of entertainment. That could be a remake, a revisioned television show or book, a comic book or video game to movie conversion, or lastly a role playing game conversion to a movie.

Now I have been clear that I find 90% of all remakes, especially those done in the last 15 years, to be sub-par expression of quick-money greed. I am equally clear that any revisioned is 99% assured to be the biggest waste of money and time you can torture yourself with. And numerous films have proven both things to be true.

But it is the run to convert video games and comic books (cartoons too) into movies of late that is interesting. There have been huge successes, and disastrous failures. The movie Hitman was just ok, making it one of the few that does not reach an extreme. Iron Man is a great success, the Dungeons and Dragons films were laughable attempts.

This brings me to Mutant Chronicles.



The film looks like it has potential. It’s based on a role playing game, which bodes badly for the film. It has Ron Perlman and Devon Aoki (best known from her role in Sin City). It’s gritty, futuristic, dark, and action oriented. In fact the trailer reminds me of a WWII film more than anything else.

But that’s where we see problems. The film is too dark. The features of characters in the light is hard to make out. But maybe that’s just the way the trailer is done. There seems to be some mysterious religious aspect to the trailer, which could be good or bad. It seems that humans are on other worlds than Earth, which might be interesting. But there are no hi-tech gizmos that you might expect for so far into the future. And there is a decided retro theme, giving an image more akin to 1935 than 2072.

It’s these mixed up ideas that seems to be the problem. The trailer really doesn’t give us a window into what the hell is going on. It make it hard to feel interested in what might happen.

The very best of fantasy, sci-fi, or almost any film follows one rule every time. Whatever is possible or real in the realm we are seeing must be explained in the first 15 minutes and then you never break those rules. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Sin City, Bladerunner, The Great Escape, Mad Max, Die Hard, Terminator, and on and on. It works every time with a great film. Even ok films follow the rule mostly.

But this film looks like it will just barrel into action, without much explanation or care. It seems far too concerned with action to care if we care about the action or its cause and effect. But to be fair it’s had to be clear on that in just a movie trailer.

I would enjoy seeing this film do well. I’m sure Doom Trooper card collectors are praying it will. But the odds are against it, and the trailer isn’t helping. Hopefully a better movie trailer will pop up and give us a reason to watch this. But I think it might be coming to a DVD sale near you.