Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines' path to a release day has been kind of an interesting one. 

It started out with some phenomenal trailers that stuck to its high-concept and sci-fi elements. As time started to approach - and more trailers released - it seemed to lose some steam, even with Peter Jackson's name attached. 

After seeing the film I discovered that the book series its based on is 4-books long and I'm eager to read it someday given how interesting the premise is. 

The film itself is a bit of a hard sell once you get past the concept and I'm sure that Peter Jackson's name all over the branding, along with ties back to The Lord of the Rings, was their best play given the lack of any recognizable names. 

Mortal Engines as it stands with the film we received is a really cool concept packed into a film that tries to be as epic as Jackson's films but would have likely been better suited with a different approach. After seeing it, and definitely now after knowing there are several books, I think it could have been an awesome television series or something that could have become an exciting trilogy with a little more star power. 

What we're actually given is a film that tries its hardest, earns a lot of good will, and features some cool ideas, but ultimately fails to stand too far away from the pack of other YA adaptations in any meaningful manner. 

Interestingly enough, Mortal Engines' biggest strength also becomes its biggest weakness. The film excels at world building and getting audiences members interested from the get-go. We're told there was a 60-minute war that decimated the entire earth. Now predator cities roam the planet, devastated by human weaponry over a thousand years ago, and gobble up smaller cities for resources. Much like that initial trailer, the premise alone is outstanding and really feels like it opens up a world of opportunities for awesome story beats. After some initial - and fantastic - world building however, we're left dropped into this world with very little to go on. Characters are motivated to do things and we're not quite sure why, scared of other things and we're not quite sure why, and the list goes on. At times Mortal Engines feels like it were the second film of a trilogy that the audience gets dropped into and we're supposed to know what a lot of these things are. The most glaring example of this comes in the final act where a specific destination is chosen for the finale and there's a lot of "wonder" built around it without actually knowing why it's special to this world. The film tends to gloss over a lot of these elements and then takes time to backtrack and explain some with flashbacks. I'm usually not all that opposed to flashbacks, but with Mortal Engines I got the distinct sense that I was missing something on more than one occasion and that's annoying.

Hugo Weaving at the chance to work with Peter Jackson again ^^

Angsty teen is angsty!

To a certain degree, the film also feels like it has a plethora of missed opportunities when it comes to taking full advantage of the premise. How closely this follows the book I certainly don't know, but we're given a very small taste of what seems like a much bigger world. I was half expecting New York City to come busting onto the scene at one point to battle London, but alas that never happens. There's also the lack of star power that feels like they could have gotten someone more than Hugo Weaving to participate. The cast we're given is serviceable, but they do little to really make these characters epic or memorable.

Where I found Mortal Engines was at its best was in its attempts to be big and epic, usually with visuals. The film has several action beats throughout, all of which are entertaining and thrilling to a certain degree, and they all look great. The city of London is gigantic and the sense of scale Engines creates to show that is both fun and daunting. The visuals to go with all of this are equally as impressive with there definitely being some Lord of the Rings-esque magic behind the scenes happening to bring this world to life. There's also a above average original score to accompany it that plays loud and proud during its biggest moments. 

Run little city! Run!

Mortal Engines is a well-intentioned movie with big ideas, but one that probably would have been a lot better if it was handled differently. It needed more time to breath and build its world, suggesting a TV series would have worked nicely, or it probably needed to be built brick-by-brick with a stellar cast, screenplay, etc. much like Lord of the Rings was. The resulting film is serviceable and mostly enjoyable, but one where I can almost guarantee the books are better and do more with the concept. 

CONS

• Feels like we're dropped into this world on the second film of a trilogy at points. We're supposed to know a lot about certain elements of the world and they've been poorly explained to us
• No-name cast struggles to earn any real connection here
• Feels like it has a plethora of missed opportunities to make itself better (perhaps in later books?)
• One subplot in particular seems really interesting, but is largely rushed through in the film. In the book I imagine it's a bit darker and more fleshed out

PROS

• When it wants to feel grand and epic, it mostly succeeds
• Awesome visuals to pair with a super interesting apocalyptic premise
• Builds a gigantic sense of scale. London is often much bigger than it seems, adding to the grandeaur
• Fun action beats with some other cool visuals
• Despite its storytelling woes, it's an enjoyable diversion with some big ideas

Rath's Review Score | 7/10