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The marketing strategy for MORTAL ENGINES, the latest movie about rebels standing up against the forces of evil, is being touted as a Peter Jackson creation. Loved for his work on THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT trilogies, Jackson’s magic touch only went as far as producing and co-writing the script for MORTAL ENGINES. It is Jackson’s protégé Christian Rivers that directed this sci-fi story about an apocalyptic bleak future that is the aftermath of a devastating war that occurred a thousand or so years ago. With strong hints of storylines borrowed from films like MAD MAX, STAR WARS, and THE HUNGER GAMES, will this film adaption of the novels written by Philip Reeve be the next big blockbuster young adult adventure by the director known for his work with Jackson?
Taking place sometime in the distant future, the setting for MORTAL ENGINES is a world destroyed by a weapon of mass destruction leaving surviving cities on a quest for resources that include food and energy. Cities now survive on massive transportation devices that allow for movement across the globe. The intense opening sequence of the film is a modified version of London chasing down a small town on wheels. The leader of London orders his soldiers to devour the escaping mining metropolis with the goal of tearing it apart and using what is left as resources to sustain London. In this opening scene we are introduced to Hester (Hera Hilmar), a young woman whose mission is revenge… Tom (Robert Sheehan), a wide-eyed rather naïve historian who collects lost technology for the London museum… and Thaddeus (Hugo Weaving), a city official with his own agenda in a quest for power and control.
Hester, traumatized from the violence of seeing her mother murdered when she was only 8-years-old, arrives in London and sets out to kill the man responsible for her mother’s death. When Hester’s assassination attempt is foiled, Tom, in an effort to chase down the would be killer, finds himself aligned with her when they inadvertently find themselves tossed out of London and lost in the vast wasteland that was earth. To complicate things further Hester is being pursued by a cyborg type creature called Strike (Stephen Lang) for a purpose that will only be revealed halfway through the film. The two are on the run for their lives but Hester is still determined to get justice for mother. Meanwhile Thaddeus is up to no good collecting pieces of the past to duplicate the weapon that destroyed the world all those years ago. Thaddeus and his co-conspirators have become aware of a place called Shan Guo nestled at the base of the Himalayan Mountains. The legendary state, protected by a boarder wall, is the land of milk and honey. Thaddeus is determined to break the wall protecting Shan Guo and gain control of its natural resources for himself. When Hester and Tom become aware of the impending attack they join forces with bounty hunter Anna (Jihae) and her soldiers to stop the invasion before thousands of innocent civilians on both sides die.
So MORTAL ENGINES starts off with a bang that fizzles into a dull thump when it offers nothing new as the story progresses. We have seen it all before. In STAR WARS we have Darth Vader creating a weapon to destroy and invade peaceful worlds, in LORD OF THE RINGS we have the cities in the west standing up against the invasion for the evil Sauron from the East, in MORTAL ENGINES London is invading the peaceful state of Shan Guo – it is the same storyline repeated so nothing new and different is offered up to the moviegoer. Even the backstory of the lead characters seems duplicated from past films. The innocent hopeful Tom will remind many of Luke Skywalker and the tough Heroine Hester has hints of Princess Leia. And of course the two lead characters develop a romantic link but their romance does not come close to the chemistry between Leia and Han Solo. Also thrown into the mix is the all too familiar theme of mysterious parentage and a bad father that has been done many times over. Seeing society being divided into a class system is also duplicated from films like THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT series just to name a few. The only character that really stands out is Strike who has a very compelling backstory. Most of the plotlines in this tale have been done many times over and by much better films and actors.
More time needed to be spent on developing the script for this movie. The dialogue (with silly references to the past) is pretty bad and does nothing for the character development. The script leaves nothing to the imagination and only results in the story becoming very predictable. The CGI effects, which are rather disappointing, are clunky and heavy. Rather than being something to behold, the special effects are overbearing, noisy, and very messy. Too many characters, time wandering, and flashbacks don’t offer up anything of interest in the narrative.
MORTAL ENGINES, a large and loud production, losses steam pretty much after the first opening sequence and is going wind up in the junk yard of films that just didn’t make the cut of greatness. Christian Rivers may want to consider spending more time with his mentor Peter Jackson to prefect the art of combining good special effects with effective directing so that one day he will also be remembered fondly in world of sci-fi adventure movies.
