MORTAL ENGINES:
PETER JACKSON PRODUCED DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI FANTASY IS A POORLY-CONSTRUCTED MESS!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: * ½ out of 4
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Humanity mobilizes after a cataclysmic attack in Mortal Engines, the new post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy film produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong (2005), The Hobbit trilogy) and based on the series of books by Phillip Reeve. I haven’t read the books, but the movie looked interesting by the trailers, and it was being produced by the man who gave us the critically and commercially successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, how could I not miss it?
The film is actually directed by Christian Rivers, who had previously worked with Jackson as a storyboard artist and visual effects supervisor on Braindead, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the 2005 remake of King Kong, in his directorial debut. Given that Rivers had plenty of experience with crafting imaginative and groundbreaking worlds and effects, he should be putting his all into his first directing effort and creating the best product he can…not quite.
While the film is visually stunning, and its premise has sparks of potential, its narrative is the bare-minimum post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy story and constructed from other, much better movies in that genre. I’ll give Mortal Engines props for not being another Hunger Games, Divergent, or Maze Runner, but at least those movies for the most part have their own personality and unique style, whereas this feels like every fantasy movie we’ve seen a thousand times before with nothing new added.
Hundreds of years after civilization was destroyed after a disastrous event known as the Sixty Minute War, the remnants of humanity regrouped and formed mobile “predator” cities in order to survive. When the city of London, now a predator city that hunts for fuel and devours everything in its path, a mysterious young woman named Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar-Anna Karenina (2012), Da Vinci’s Demons, The Oath) emerges as the only person who can stop London and the ruthless Head of the Guild of Historians, Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving-The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Transformers 1-3, Captain America: The First Avenger), who supposedly killed her mother, from destroying the Shield Wall of Asia with a powerful weapon that can destroy entire cities in an instant, and lead London to a new hunting ground in Asia.
Hester is joined up with a low-class apprentice historian from London now forced to ally with her and the rebellion named Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan-Misfits, Love/Hate, Mute) and a pilot and leader of the Anti-Traction League known as Anna Fang (rock musician, Jihae-2B, Mars) on her quest to stop London from literally driving the world into chaos.
The film also stars Stephen Lang (Gettysburg, Tombstone, Avatar) as Shrike, an undead soldier re-animated with machine parts and Hester’s guardian, Ronan Raftery (Moone Boy, Crossing Lines, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Bevis Pod, Patrick Malahide (US Marshals, EuroTrip, Game of Thrones) as Magnus Crome, the mayor of London, Colin Salmon (James Bond franchise, Tales from the Crypt, 24: Live Another Day) as Chudleigh Pomeroy, Mark Mitchinson (Power Rangers: Megaforce, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, The Hobbit 2 and 3) as Vambrace, Regé-Jean Page (Roots, For the People) as Captain Khora, Mark Hadlow (Meet the Feebles, King Kong (2005), The Hobbit trilogy) as Orme Wreyland, and Caren Pistorius (Slow West, The Light Between Oceans, Gloria Bell) as Hester’s deceased mother, Pandora Shaw.
Overall, Mortal Engines wastes its fascinating concept with another tiresome fantasy adaptation we’ve heard a million times before. It’s really a shame because a lot of very talented people worked on it, had the script be given a rewrite, more of the ideas fully realized, and the characters were more fleshed out, this could have been the next Lord of the Rings.
I was getting into the first half of the movie as it explored the backstory that led to the development of the cities and how they work. However, when the main characters arrive, and the story begins to unfold, it becomes generic and just kind of boring.
It’s every single young adult dystopian fantasy plot, a girl has to lead a rebellion against an evil organization to stop them from destroying the world. How many times have we heard that story? Well, there’s no Girl on Fire this time.
I wouldn’t really mind the traditional post-apocalyptic story that much if the main characters were interesting, and they’re not. Hester should be this badass heroine, but often at times she delivers her lines as if she’s reading them off the script and lacking emotion, even when she argues with Tom and confronts Valentine in a final battle, she sounds and acts like a whiney teenage girl, I haven’t read the book so I’m not sure if her character is like this in the source material but it is noticeable in the movie.
Everyone else is either annoying or forgettable, Tom is the obnoxious comic-relief, Valentine is just a generic tyrant who wants control and power, Shrike is basically every one-dimensional video game villain ever made and looks like if the Terminator made love to Red Skull, and Thaddeus’ daughter Katherine I keep forgetting was even in the damn film. Really, the only character I thought was legitimately cool was Jihae as the pilot and rebellion leader, she pilots ships, kicks ass, and even delivers some funny one-liners, I kind of wished she was the protagonist in the movie rather than these dull planks of wood.
Aside from the visuals and concept, Mortal Engines just doesn’t live up to its expectations and comes off as another sci-fi/fantasy movie with little variety. Hopefully Christian Rivers can take better notes and try harder on any future directing projects, because you can see a good, exciting movie trying to get out of these tiring clichés, but as is, this “Engine” desperately needs more fuel and thought put into it.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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