The Mutant Chronicles - Lord of the Rings... is space!

Imagine a film was pitched to a studio wanting space battles, epic Steampunk sets, monsters, deep and memorable characters and generally a piece of work that will leave a lasting impression like 'The Lord of the Rings' has had on society.  Then imagine the studio said, "That sounds great - do it!  Now here's $50.  Off you go."

That kind of miniscule budget may just have a slight impact on what can be done.  However, the film-makers tried and 'The Mutant Chronicles' is the result.  I've seen a lot of hate for this film online - most of which saying how 'cheap' it looks.  To be fair... they're not wrong.  It's like watching humans acting in front of a Playstation 2 cut scene for an hour and forty minutes.  And yet - for some reason - I can't bring myself to hate this film.

It tried.  It wanted to be so much more, but was never allowed to be so.  It has some familiar faces (John Malcovich and Ron Perlman), plus a host of characters who probably deserved so much more backstory than what they got (due to time/budget constraints).

In about a thousand years, the world is split in three and currently fighting in World War One style trenches (don't think about it - just accept it).  Unfortunately, in one of the battles the warring armies unearth some long forgotten evil and have to team up in order to throw a ring into Mount Door... or something.  Put a page of a book in a library.  No, not really, but something like that.

So the Fellowship of the mutants sets off across a (computer-generated) post apocalyptic world in order to slice their way through waves of monsters who look like they're out of a Playstation 1 game I played back in the nineties, but can't remember the name of.

If you're going to enjoy this film you need to know what you're in for.  I say again - it's cheap.  If you're expecting anything more then you're probably not going to like it, but if you're in the mood for a sci-fi little B-movie with big aspirations then give this one a go.  It's highly watchable.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that