Mortal Engines

So there is a post-apocalyptic fantasy epic here that probably could have been a decent, unique movie... too bad I often confused this movie with Alita Battle Angel for some reason.

Mortal Engines is an adaptation of a book that I never read. It takes place years after a vague event where society was wiped out by a super weapon and eventually built itself back up to be kind of a better society with cities on wheels, cities in the sky, and a lot of steam punk machinery and visuals that deserved a much better movie.

The movie follows two main characters, Hester Shaw (played by Herra Hilmar) and Tom Natsworthy (played by Robert Sheehan). They come together through unusual circumstances as Hester has a vendetta against the hero of the city of London, Thadeus Valentine (played by Hugo Weaving).

The two start the movie on the moving city of London but they spend most of the movie trying to get back there and there are a lot of twists, turns, and detours that the two take to flesh out the world that they live in while Hester is being hunted down by Valentine's people and a resurrected cyborg named Shrike (voiced by Stephen Lang). And while that may not have totally registered, it does kind of underline the weird and unique elements of this world that this movie could have explored but really doesn't because this movie is rushing through to get through a billion things in the 2 hour run time they were granted by Universal Pictures.

Seriously, there is so much here. I've never read the book, but it is clear that there is a whole mythology and lore behind this story that might have been explored more in an initial draft or a planned trilogy. As it stands though, we get dropped in this world that reminds me of the video games Dishonored and Bioshock Infinite and a bunch of lore I don't care about that I'd much rather they just made a Bioshock Infinite or Dishonored film instead of attractive white people in cyber punk trench coats: The Movie!

We get the journey of these two characters played by Hilmar and Sheehan, who by the way have no chemistry whatsoever. But then we have Hugo Weaving doing his thing, which in the grand scheme of things, he's actually not written as that evil of a guy, you just know him as the evil guy because he's Hugo Weaving. But then there's a subplot with Hugo Weaving's character's daughter (played by Leila George) and a totally random dude who I never really understood who he was (played by Ronan Raffery). The subplot really goes no where and those two did not need to be in the film besides exhibiting some attractive white people in cyber punk trench coats.

But then the main characters get mixed up with terrorists/sky pirates led by Anna Fang (played by Jihae) and the plot turns into a resistance fight against the "man" and honestly, the movie never made clear to me who was the bad guy or who was the good guy. Like I know it because you assume the main characters are aligning themselves with good guys, but I had no idea who these people were, I had no idea if they were going to fight with them or if they were going to betray the heroes at any point.

AND THEN THERE'S THE RESURRECTING CYBORG THAT RAISED HESTER SHAW!!!

How was that the most sidelined plot of the entire movie?

Some of the performances in this film are fine. Hugo Weaving is always entertaining and I don't know many performances he phones in. Hera Hilmar not only gives a good performance, but her character is actually written relatively well as a girl struck by tragedy early on in life and finding a new purpose in her life while dealing with the hauntings of the past. Is it original? No. But I thought she actually was giving a better performance than the movie she was in deserved.

I am not really a fan of Robert Sheehan. I didn't really like him in Umbrella Academy and I really didn't like him in this film. His character is one that has been written a billion times over as the young man of poor stature (probably an orphan) who wishes to be more, and circumstances pulls him into adventure. It's an overdone character and Sheehan not only brings nothing to it, he's not that interesting. I also found it funny that they alluded to a romantic interest between him and Hester Shaw but I came out of the film thinking that he was probably gay.

It just speaks to the lack of chemistry between the two leads. By the end of the film, it definitely seems like Hester is going off on an adventure with her gay friend Tom and I actually would have respected the movie more if it had gone that direction.

Overall, Mortal Engines is a film that I wish would have been given more attention. I've heard rumors that Peter Jackson was supposed to direct it, but he was pulled off to direct The Hobbit Movies and it was punted to Christian Rivers. But I think there was an opportunity to create the next epic trilogy, if there had been more time given to the story that clear seems to be better than this movie portrayed.

I mean there's a FREAKING RESURRECTED CYBORG wrecking havoc in this movie. There is no reason why this movie shouldn't have been a lot of fun.

And I think the biggest thing that bugged me is that the efforts of this film, especially when it comes to adapting a creative idea and the visual effects, could have been directed towards a well known property with some name recognition to it. I would have loved to see Peter Jackson support, if not direct, a Bioshock Infinite film, or a Star Wars film with this kind of visual and creative adaptation. Obviously, I would have liked to see this new and unadapted story be adapted well, but if you're going to throw resources towards a movie, why not make it something notable.

I think I just want Peter Jackson to have either had more resources towards this movie, or have him direct a Bioshock/ Star Wars film.

But overall, Mortal Engines is a visually beautiful movie. But the story is a mess, the performances are hit and miss, and they underutilized a FREAKING RESURRECTED CYBORG plotline! It reminds me of the movie Eragon where it is clear there is a lot of lore behind this story, but not nearly enough time and resources to really develop it in a way that elevates it to the level of the great novel adaptations.

But those are my thoughts on Mortal Engines. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!