Mutant Chronicles (Blu-ray) Limited Uncut Steelbook Edition

I had heard a lot about this movie and was surprised when it did not have a cinema release. Despite the great influx of horror movies, there has never been one that truly captures the "Mutant" genera since the 1990's. Set in the distant future, WW3 has broken out between the four major corporations that now run Earth. The movie sees an ancient alien machine reactivated after many years to bring untold suffering to mankind in the form of mutants. An unlikely band of humans from all the represented corporations lead by a monk are brought together to fulfil a task set years ago to destroy the machine. The plot is sound and has a good premise in relation to its budget. The budget is also an issue when it comes to quality of visual, some scenes seem more realistic than others and it is very difficult to become involved in the dialogue between characters which is incredibly 2D at times.

However, I must say that it is well worth watching, the special effects are quite something and the general gore and war scenes are enough to keep the die hard fans of the genera interested...for a while. Worth it? Probably, but I would wait to find it in a bargain basket or at a lower price!

Mutant Chronicles is a sci-fi/steampunk/war B movie. An Ancient machine that creates world destroying mutants lies buried beneath a seal which was set there hundreds of years ago,the legend of which is protected by a monastic order who hold the book that tells of the dark times when the machine was originally stopped. Fast forward to the year 2707 and corporate war is ravaging the earth. During an artilery barrage the forgotten seal is broken and the machine is working again sending out mutants to kill and bring back humans to make more mutants. The keepers of the seals knowledge set out with a group of harderned soldiers to once and for all destroy the machine.

The films setting has a definate steampunk feel with many of the early battle scenes having a the feel of WWI trench warfare. The weapons and flying vehicles in the film are steam powered. Most of the special effects are CGI driven but considering this title is a low budget B movie they work really well.

The Visual quality on Blu-Ray is very good. Occasionally you get a slight grainy feel but the whole setting for the movie is dark and steam filled so this is a by product of the setting and not a bad transfer. The Audio is HD DTS multichannel and is very good quality my small gripe would be that the sudden changes for whispered talk to artillery bombardment can have you grabbing for the remote to change adjust the sound level so i eventually used the autolevel feature on my blu ray player to help with this issue.

Extras on the disc are sparce but thats not unusual for a B movie release like this. There is a 25 minute making of with interviews with all the main cast which include Ron Pearlman Hellboy [Blu-ray] [2004],Devon Aoki(who played Miho in Sin City - 2-Disc Edition [Blu-ray] [2005] Sean Pertwee who seems to make a fair few B movie films like the excellentDog Soldiers [DVD] [2002]. There is also 7 minutes of behind the scenes camera work

Nice to find something in the B movie range with a budget price.
All in all 1 hour and 45 minutes of good value B movie Fare.

I love Indie films and considering the production budget was just £900k, its a heck of a film. Yep an extra million or two could have added polish, better CGI and a tad more light but for an extreme low budget B movie with a great cast its a cracker.
Fast paced, brutal realism and great directing. I just hope its picked up for a decent budget sequel. I would love to see what they could do with a Hollywood budget.
One for those who enjoy a different twist on their scifi/horror. Reminds me of those Japanese films that pull you in from a totally different direction.