When I first heard what Mortal Engines, the book series, was about--giant mobile cities that hunt smaller (also mobile) towns across a vast wasteland--I immediately thought about the skit in the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life, where executives find their boardroom meeting interrupted by pirates who raid them from a building that sails right up next to theirs (it was meant to be a joke on the “corporate raider” mentality of the 1980s, but wound up being eerily prescient of the cold-hearted greed that the corporate elite had displayed in the years since). Despite having this silly image in my head, I still tried to keep an open mind about the film version of Mortal Engines, even after it became one of the big box office flops of 2018.
And now after having seen Mortal Engines, I’m really glad I did, because I thought it was a superbly well-done movie.
Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world that was ravaged a thousand years ago by a devastating war, Mortal Engines is indeed about mobile cities that prey on one another, the biggest and most powerful being London, a massive super star destroyer-type vehicle that travels overland with thousands upon thousands of people living on top of one another in relative comfort. London crossed the land bridge into Europe looking for more small towns to plunder, while one of its elites, Thaddeus Valentine (the always good Hugo Weaving), is feverishly working on a special project.
Yet when London captures and “eats” a small roving town, it inadvertently picks up more trouble than it expected in the form of Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), a swashbuckling young woman who covers the lower half of her face with a scarlet scarf to hide a scar given to her as a child. Hester is in London to give out some scars herself--targeting Thaddeus Valentine for death with a hidden blade. Fierce, passionate, and loyal to those she loves, Hester is the perfect heroine for this story, and Hilmar does such an exemplary job in playing her that you’re on Hester’s side the moment you first meet her.
Peter Jackson, the director behind the fantastic Lord of the Rings films (as well as the flawed Hobbit trilogy) co-writes and produces Mortal Engines with the same creative team he worked with on LOTR, and it shows. ME’s production design is outstanding, especially in its creation of a mobile London that’s still a thriving, working city within its confines (in revealing moments that reflect our world, the crowds venture outside on terraces to cheer on their city as it consumes a smaller town, much like a bizarre sporting event).
Stephen Lang (Avatar) manages to give an affecting performance while completely unrecognizable as a literal zombie soldier that’s hell-bent on hunting down Hester. And Hugo Weaving is very good as a villain who’s all smiles and pleasant on the surface, but who will stop at nothing--including killing whoever needs to be killed--to further his self-serving ambitions. Mortal Engines is an enthralling world-building epic that builds its suspense to a fine crescendo. It’s ultimately a satisfying popcorn movie with fully fleshed out characters within a richly thought-out backdrop. I don't know why this film bombed at the box office, but I’m grateful that Mortal Engines is on home video, because I can now watch this enjoyable film as often as I wish. It's highly recommended if you’re looking for something very different and fresh. --SF
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