Mortal Engines (2018)

Mortal Engines (2018)

3/10

Starring

Hera Hilmar

Robert Sheehan

Hugo Weaving

Directed by Christian Rivers

I’ll take my time to explain why this movie feels so out of touch with itself—it’s surprising it has any good reviews at all.
Mortal Engines seems more focused on what it’s trying to achieve and impressing the filmmakers than entertaining us, the viewers.

Does the movie have an aim?
Well, to the makers, it does. But for me, someone who knows nothing about the source material and was just curious to see a Peter Jackson film, I was left unimpressed. I had no idea what the movie was trying to do. The genre-crossing was so blandly executed that if you’re not careful, you might doze off. Even though the actors were fully committed to their roles, the movie failed at the one thing every film should do: entertain.

My biggest turn-off was how much happened in the first twenty-five minutes. It felt like a premature explosion of ideas. Then, for the next twenty-five minutes, almost nothing happens. The movie meanders through pointless scenes, introduces random characters, and has a flow that’s just not worth the time invested to keep up.

Now, the plot: the movie follows a girl named Hester (not Elizabeth) with a scar across her face, which she got when she was eight years old.
It’s also about a man named Valentine, who has a diabolical vision for the future—a future where he has the power to destroy any city that opposes him.
What connects Hester to Valentine is her mother. Valentine murdered Hester’s mother and scarred Hester in the process.
All of this takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where cities move on wheels. Why the future is like this? The movie doesn’t bother to explain.
In this world, bigger cities consume smaller ones for fuel and manpower.

Fair warning: don’t get confused about Valentine’s daughter in this movie—she has no real purpose. She’s mainly used to introduce a historian named Tom, who collects dangerous artifacts tied to the destruction of Earth.
She’s also the one who saves Valentine when Hester tries to kill him. After failing to apprehend Hester, Tom is thrown off the moving city and ends up in the hands of the very person he tried to capture: Hester.

Hester is still determined to get her revenge, Tom just wants to return to city life, and Valentine remains obsessed with collecting old weapons to create a device powerful enough to wipe out entire cities.

In the end, the movie misses the mark on almost everything. I don’t have fond memories of watching it, and the only thing I’m 100% sure of is that it’s hard to believe anyone actually liked this movie.