2) The Sci-Fi Influence Is Clear
Jones has not yet graced us with any footage of Mute, but mercifully we do have the quintessentially sci-fi concept art to drool over in the meantime. With some of it looking like the pages of a comic book and the rest looking like a pretty painting of an LA-meets-Tokyo cityscape, the Blade Runner homage is unashamedly clear.
The influence of Blade Runner on cinema’s depiction of futuristic cities is well-known and has often been copied but never bettered. There have been numerous modern science fiction films from the likes of Minority Report to Total Recall to…pretty much anything inspired by a Phillip K. Dick story that have tried and failed to emulate the lived-in grittiness of Blade Runner’s LA.
What makes Mute’s city a more interesting prospect than just a Blade Runner copycat is the clear influence from elsewhere. The likes of Akira and Ghost In The Shell, as well as the overcrowded busyness of DC’s Transmetropolitan could well lead to a spark of originality amongst this mishmash of sci-fi influences.