Mortal Engines - Movie Review
3"Mortal Engines" (2018) directed by Christian Rivers is a very weak fantasy action film in my opinion. What it does offer is a unique universe but it lacks almost anything else of substance.
Mortal Engines takes place in a world where the Earth's major and minor cities have transformed into on-wheels moving traction cities. Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) plots her revenge against one of the heads of London who murdered her mother named Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving). An imprisoned robot fixated on killing Hester named Shrike is released from his cage and let loose. Thaddeus plots to annihilate the Anti-Tractionists guarding a wall which prevents them from getting their resources.
Mortal Engines is almost good but it's really underwhelming in my opinion. The film's only value is it's interesting premise and setting, but there are plenty of bones to pick and I believe there is a novel to read that would suffice that. I would love to say Hugo Weaving is good in this but he's honestly playing the most cliché villain character ever. The action and visuals are decent but there are hundreds of other movies I would recommend before seeing this in those two departments.
Shrike is a waste of screen time with zero emotional impact (despite them trying to), who is blatantly ripping off "The Terminator" (1984). The main character Hester has stereotypical motivations and I did not resonate with her either. Tom (Robert Sheehan) is whatever to me and I particularly hated his profession because it breaks immersion with stupid real world meta jokes and references. Fang (Jihae) & Katherine (
Leila George) are more extremely stereotypical characters who made me audibly laugh with how predictable and formulaic their dialogue was.
Believe it or not, this is actually my fourth time watching Mortal Engines. It continues to get worse and worse on each rewatch but it's not atrocious or anything.
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