Mutant Chronicles (2009)

The year is 2707 and the world is divided in to four warring factions (much like the world of George Orwell’s 1984). As two of the megapowers clash, a machine that has been buried for 10,000 years is unearthed and the mutants it creates spew forth onto the battlefield. These are not laser eye blasting mutants, nor do they have power over magnetism, these are deformed, killing machines that want to butcher all humans or turn them into mutants.

The secret of the machine is known by a group of monks that includes Ron Perlman (Hellboy 2, The Last Winter). The monks also know of a prophecy about the man who will lead a mission to stop the machine. Pearlman goes about recruiting his version of the Magnificent Seven / Dirty Dozen to do the job, starting with Thomas Jane (The Tripper, Punisher), while the rest of planet Earth flees to the stars.

It might be the future, but it is a not a brave new world, it’s a grimy, steam punk world where the soldiers dress like it is World War One. The movie is shot with all the backgrounds created by CGI, like in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or Sin City. Mutant Chronicles is based on role playing game of the same name and suffers from a lack of depth and originality. A good cast (including Devon Aoki, Sean Pertwee, John Malkovich) slaughtering mutants in a retro-futuristic setting is not enough to disguise a dull script.