Mortal Engines is based on a novel by Philip Reeve and adapted into a movie by Christian Rivers as the director and Peter Jackson as one of the producers. It's a story of a post-apocalyptic steampunk world where Europe has become a barren wasteland, ravaged and foraged by enormous mobile city machines. Strong eats weak, Darwinism is all but a religion and anything from the old world is hailed as a divine relic.
Pretty basic stuff, although the idea of a city having been remade into a mobile hunting platform is a fun one. And the does get some traction based on that idea. All the best CGI money shots are of those cities in motion.
Unfortunately the rest of the film is nothing but one bland cliché after another. We have the status quo of the wealthy elite ruling over the poor. We have the rebellion fighting against the elite. We have the plucky youngster getting pulled into the rebellion after having his eyes opened to the cruelties of his elite peers. We have the too cool for school rebel leader with a tragic backstory. Actually, we have more than one of those. We have the good rival nation, the greener side of the fence, where everything is more civilized and better.
And all those clichés are not insurmountable obstacles. Some of the best stories in the world are based on those exact clichés. It's the execution that's the key. Which unfortunately doesn't work here. The most egregious problem is the character writing. None of them are interesting. The least of all Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar). You know, the woman on the poster. The supposed main character. I honestly cannot name a single defining characteristic about her beyond the obvious clichés of her being tragic, emo and scarred.
That being said, I did enjoy both Robert Sheehan as the plucky science lad getting pulled into the madness and Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine, the main antagonist. They were the only two actors I felt were giving it their all.
Mortal Engines is a pretty film. It has eye candy galore. It simply isn't told well enough to rise above expectations.
Pretty basic stuff, although the idea of a city having been remade into a mobile hunting platform is a fun one. And the does get some traction based on that idea. All the best CGI money shots are of those cities in motion.
Unfortunately the rest of the film is nothing but one bland cliché after another. We have the status quo of the wealthy elite ruling over the poor. We have the rebellion fighting against the elite. We have the plucky youngster getting pulled into the rebellion after having his eyes opened to the cruelties of his elite peers. We have the too cool for school rebel leader with a tragic backstory. Actually, we have more than one of those. We have the good rival nation, the greener side of the fence, where everything is more civilized and better.
And all those clichés are not insurmountable obstacles. Some of the best stories in the world are based on those exact clichés. It's the execution that's the key. Which unfortunately doesn't work here. The most egregious problem is the character writing. None of them are interesting. The least of all Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar). You know, the woman on the poster. The supposed main character. I honestly cannot name a single defining characteristic about her beyond the obvious clichés of her being tragic, emo and scarred.
That being said, I did enjoy both Robert Sheehan as the plucky science lad getting pulled into the madness and Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine, the main antagonist. They were the only two actors I felt were giving it their all.
Mortal Engines is a pretty film. It has eye candy galore. It simply isn't told well enough to rise above expectations.