Mortal Engines Movie Review
2 out of 5
This summer I saw the trailer to this movie, along with seeing who made it (Peter Jackson and the gang from “The Lord of the Rings” movies), and was fairly excited to see what it might bring. The trilogy of Lord of the Rings movies was simply brilliant, and though the Hobbit trilogy wasn’t as well received — it still was fine movie making, and Peter Jackson really does have a way with taking you to worlds your eyes just can’t believe. “Mortal Engines” looked the same, with whole cities on wheels, fighting for survival in an apocalyptic wasteland. The size and scope of the movie looked as if it might rival what was done with Frodo and Bilbo. In addition, this movie is based on the books by Philip Reeve, and Jackson did about as good as you could do in bringing long, intricate stories to the big screen — so going in — I had some high expectations…Perhaps too high.
It’s not that this movie isn’t good, it’s not a bad film at all. But the magic that existed in bringing “The Lord of the Rings” movies to life just isn’t there in the same way. To be fair, one set of books is considered to be literary giants, and the other I’d never heard of, so perhaps there is a massive gap in the quality of source material. What is different, though, is going into “Mortal Engines” I didn’t know it was based on books. Halfway through the film though I guessed that it had to be — as giant portions of the movie just felt forced, or as if there were pieces just missing or added in — because they had to be. Characters just showed up, with little or no backstory and then took on large roles in the film, and I was left wondering who they were, or why in some cases they were even there. I’m guessing in the books, those details are more fleshed out, and the characters show up in the movie because readers would have missed them if they had not been there. Again, it’s not that they’re bad characters — but I wanted to know more about them, so I could care about them. As it is — I didn’t really care about them or their fates. Criticized in the past for the length of his films, Jackson actually could have allowed this one to be made a bit longer and it would have helped.
The story is a cool premise — after society destroyed itself with a massive weapon — the ground is essentially too poisonous and treacherous to live on, so entire cities are forced to become mobile machines, searching out smaller cities for resources. And one such city is led by an evil man, who is bent on destroying a civilization who has found a way to live without moving, and has resources that everyone wants. Once more, a giant story, with giant machines — but unfortunately with a script and characters that can’t match it.
One part “Waterworld” and “Fury Road”, with elements of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” mixed in — you’d think this would be a home run. For me, it was just a fun movie that felt like it could have been so much more. Perhaps my expectations were just too high.
“Mortal Engines” is now showing, and is rated PG-13 for sequences of futuristic violence and action.
