'Mortal Engines' A Review

Mortal Engines is a post-apocalyptic steampunk movie based on the novel of the same name. Sometime in the 21st century the 60 Minute War devastates the world, not nuclear fallout but the laser-beam equivalent called MEDUSA. As a result people put wheels on cities which role around the blasted world hunting each other for resources. A thousand years have passed(or more its unclear) and London, one of the most fearsome predator cities, has left the UK to hunt the European continent. Hester Shaw(Hera Hilmar) purposefully gets caught by London in order to attempt to assassinate it's one its leaders who killed her mother Thaddeus Valentine(Hugo Weaving). She fails and is thrown off along with Tom Natsworthy(Robert Sheehan) a historian and wouldbe pilot. The two get tied up with the anti-traction league(a group that has settled on land and opposes the predator cities) and are set to oppose London as it seeks to become the world power. Sound complicated? It's even more convoluted than that!

There is no doubt the cast has talent but unfortunately because of the tone-deaf and nearly incomprehensible script and startling lack of direction all performances flounder save for the two seasoned actors Weaving and Stephen Lang(as the Terminator-esk machine-man Shrike). The accents are inconsistent for each actor as well as with respect to the world-building. There is no effective character development, what is there is loose, lazy, and derivative it amounts to nothing at all. A huge cast is feebly introduced, at the sacrifice of the lead character Hester, and then most of them are abandoned until they are needed to propel the increasingly manufactured plot. There is nothing wrong with casting a majority of unknown talent, Jihae as Anna Fang is an inspired choice, but they don't have the professional chops or experience to weather the thoroughly undercooked production without looking like what they are- exceedingly green.

Two of three criteria(all three is ideal) are needed in order to succeed- character, plot, and world-building. Ex-Machina had character and plot, Dredd had plot and world-building. there is a reason most successful genre movies, the two above included, have a small scale. Because its difficult to achieve without considerably focus. Mortal Engines fails on all criteria because it seems to have a fundamnetal misunderstanding of what makes a good story. Hester is the lead character, full stop, her story is the backbone of the narrative. We are given little context for her character until half the bloated run time has run its course. Not investment is created because we are introduced to ten characters in the first ten minutes and none of them carry any weight. Visually, sure, the movie at least has some original design- the cities, the airships, the cloths- but it is all glitzy CGI with no credible context in which to put them(uncompelling characters and a lethargic plot).

Despite all its numerous faults the "world-building" is perhaps the biggest. Genre fiction or film  is difficult and world-building is one of those most mercurial skills and traits of it. We can have dragons and magic, we can have zombies and vampires, we can have whole tractor cities that seemingly run on metal as fuel(?) and futuristic jet air ships with paper wings but they have to adhere to an internal and logic. There has to be solid reasoning and story that lay a foundation for the fantastic. It doesn't need to be possible in our reality but it needs to be reality that makes sense. Perhaps the book delves deeper into the history and technology of the world but the movie has an eye-roll inducing blend of lasers and jets and guns all the while bemoaning how "backward" the world is. There's also the fundamental justification for the predator cities themselves, the Earth clearly has bounced back form whatever devastation it once suffered, as such this overriding motivation for "resources" makes little to know sense. The amount of energy it would require to simply move these various gargantuan monstrosities is so huge it does not make sense with the technology the world purports to utilize. The list goes on and on.

Half-baked, unfocused, tonally(and totally) unaware.

Don't See It.