New Red Band Trailer for 'Mutant Chronicles'
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Trailers and Clips
I'm a big enough person to say when I'm wrong, and sometimes, I'm also a big enough person to say 'I told you so'. The new R-rated trailer for Simon Hunter's Mutant Chronicles up at IGN, and while it was nice to get a glimpse of carnage from the sci-fi actioner; I have to be honest with you; it still isn't that much better than the last trailer we got our hands on.
Mutant Chronicles is set in the year 2707, when natural resources are at an all time low, and humanity has gone 'steampunk'. When mutant creatures descend, Thomas Jane (as the leader of a Marine Platoon) becomes the last line of defence before we all pack it in and abandon the earth. Throw in some quality CGI, and a cast that includes Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, and John Malkovich as a bad guy, and you should have had something, right?
Chronicles has earned a paltry 20% approval rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, but I guess it's the optimist in me that wants to believe the rating is the result of only a few people having seen it. Then again, even those who have weren't too thrilled with it either. Chronicles will have a limited theatrical release on April 24th, and then the film will head straight to the Sci-Fi Channel for a March premier.
So, have we all been just a little too hard on Mutant Chronicles? Are we all expecting too much? Or is there a very good reason why this film has made such a bad first impression. Take a gander at the trailer and sound off below...
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Shelf Life: Fight Club_thumbnail.jpg)
Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
Peter Jackson Says Spielberg's 'Tintin' is Done Filming, but...
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-25-2009 @ 11:40AM
Bob said...
Ho-hum... Why was this a Red Band trailer??
Reply
1-25-2009 @ 1:44PM
alkohal said...
This movie leaked in full shortly after comiccon last year, and may I say it was direct to video quality in all aspects. Almost Sci-Fi Movie of the week bad. Why are they even bothering the movies been done for quite a while now.
Reply
1-25-2009 @ 2:28PM
Mr. R said...
Is it me or is that mutant in chains a total rip off from 28 days later? Never mind, I was convinced it was a fail the moment Perlman shouts that fake, book slamin' "there is still hope!"
Reply
1-25-2009 @ 4:52PM
Eric said...
What is everyone so sour about? It looks fun. And Alkohol, come on, it looks well better than any SciFi MotW.
Reply
1-25-2009 @ 5:05PM
Christian M. Howell said...
Methinks thou dost protest too much. It had a touching theme and good moments. I'd go see it. I guess they were looking for deep characterizations and an arc.
Reply
1-26-2009 @ 3:34AM
Moira said...
Someone gave me an illegal copy, which I admit, wasn't exactly ethical. But I'll see it in the theatre to make up for it. There was an arc: it had to do with caring about human beings as opposed to humanity as a whole, but for some strange reason they tossed the through line just before the end of the movie.
Perlman was perfect anyway, as always.
1-26-2009 @ 9:02AM
Marco said...
I guess when a film's quality looks questionable, they'll screen it in 3rd world countries (like mine) first. Yah, I did see this in the theaters. At least with a film like say, The Spirit, it was so ridiculously over the top that you'll enjoy it to some extent. Mutant Chronicles however wasn't so much WTF as it was more WTF IS THIS $#!+!?
Reply
1-26-2009 @ 10:31AM
Astin said...
I saw this at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival - it wasn't worth it.
I went in ready for full-on Perlman-led camp, Thomas Jane tough-guy wisecracking mayhem, and Malkovich being... well, Malkovich. Hell, it has Devon Aoki with a sword, how can it be bad?
I was sorely disappointed. Perlman was fine, Jane was generic, and overall it tried to do too many things It's a religious film about faith, it's a sci-fi film about mutants and aliens, it's a war film, a steampunk piece, a quest... and it is all rushed. At one point they just give up and seem to skip a large part of the plot because they were running out of time/money (I assume... that or terrible editing). It's as if they meant it to be a 2 or 3 part mini-series and then decided to skip the middle section to make it fit in a 2 hour timeframe. The pieces just don't fit together.
There were moments of campy fun and cliches done humourously, but on the whole, it took itself too seriously to be campy, but was too campy to be taken seriously. This is what happens when you base movies on table-top RPGs - it feels like a GM is writing the script.
Now, Laser Ghosts 2: Return to Laser Cove, which preceded it, THAT was a campy bunch of hilarity.
Reply
1-27-2009 @ 2:40AM
Alkohal said...
After saying it was no better then a Sci-fi Movie of the week I reread the article only to see its premiering on Sci-fi in March. That's sad!
Reply
1-28-2009 @ 1:55AM
Justin said...
///
"Hell, it has Devon Aoki with a sword, how can it be bad?"
I second that !!!
Justin
The Devon Aoki Appreciation Society
http://geocities.com/lovelydevonaoki/
----------------------------------------
Reply
1-28-2009 @ 2:11PM
Spence said...
Jess I saw this movie...and it is an utter mess.
The first bit was fun, and then it turned into a 15 year olds RPG video game. Crap.