In 2150, artificial intelligence mutated, took control of Earth from humans, and launched an eradication operation against humanity. The surviving humans fought a desperate battle with the artificial intelligence army.
Based on the thousands of films I have seen in my lifetime, as a movie connoisseur and a film critic, I can state unequivocally that Qilin Li’s “Mutant Genesis” (also known simply as “Mutant”) ranks among the most egregious failures ever committed to film. And believe me, I have seen some real stinkers in my life. The movie is basically a rehash of “The Terminator,” with humans creating an AI that gains self-awareness; when they try to shut it down, it retaliates and wipes out most of mankind. We then follow a small group of survivors who venture into the AI-controlled city, determined to destroy it and restore peace to humanity.
The overall quality of “Mutant Genesis” is abominable. It is filmed mostly with substandard CGI and a mix of AI, and the version I watched was an English dub with particularly grating voiceover. In certain scenes, characters are visibly engaged in intense firefights, shouting with evident emotion, only for the English dub to have them speak in an oddly calm and detached manner. I haven’t laughed this hard at a bad movie in a long time.
The AI machines track down and hunt humans using vessels eerily similar to James Cameron’s HK-Aerial ships seen in “The Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” And to top it off, the sound effects of the ships’ plasma cannons are nearly indistinguishable from those in Cameron’s films. I guess plagiarism never crossed the filmmakers’ minds. We also get a scene stolen directly out of “The Matrix,” the bullet-time rooftop dodge, where Neo bends backward to avoid a barrage of bullets. Here it is recreated precisely as it was in “The Matrix,” with our female protagonist going through the exact same motions. Then the filmmakers decided ripping off “The Terminator” and “The Matrix” wasn’t enough, so they stole the laser grid scene from “Resident Evil.” Yep, that’s right, our female protagonist is trapped in a hallway when a hidden laser grid activates, slicing through the air, shifting from single lines to complex patterns, only for our heroine to duck, backflip, and cling to the ceiling handholds to dodge the various lasers.
I could go on, but why bother? This film rips off other classics haphazardly, demonstrating a complete lack of creative vision. I usually try to find at least one redeeming quality when critiquing a film this bad, but here, there isn’t any. The acting, CGI, voice dubbing, sound effects, and pretty much everything else associated with this movie are wholly inadequate. Adding insult to injury, the artwork for the DVD cover, which you can see below, has a snarling alien with jaws full of sharp, translucent teeth, looking like it is about to devour our protagonist. The only problem is that the creature never appears in the film; it is simply false advertising, and the filmmakers should be thoroughly embarrassed for releasing such a substandard product.
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