Today’s quick review: Mortal Engines. In the ravaged Earth of the future, enormous mobile cities prey on one another for the few remaining resources. Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) sneaks aboard the city of London to kill Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) and avenge the death of her mother. But when Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) interferes, both Hester and Tom fall off the city into the surrounding wastes, forcing them to work together to make it back.
Mortal Engines is a steampunk action adventure based on the book by Philip Reeve. The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the remnants of civilization have gone mobile in an effort to survive. Mortal Engines features a creative premise, lots of action, and the CGI budget to back it up. However, it falters when it comes to its story, with an excess of supporting characters, predictable plot twists, and little depth to its situations.
Mortal Engines excels at one thing: fantasy. The setting’s massive, rolling cities and empty wastelands give the movie a sense of scale rarely seen elsewhere. Add in the setting’s airships, mechanical men, and remnants of old-world technology, and Mortal Engines has plenty of tools to work with when crafting its action and its story. City-sized chases, air battles, and a dash of dystopian conspiracy prove to be the film’s main offerings.
However, the setting’s creativity has some unintended consequences. The movie struggles with suspension of disbelief from the very beginning. Major issues include the amount of power required to move entire cities, the immense speeds at which they roll along, and the feasibility of living off scraps in a world with no apparent farmland. These practical issues don’t get in the way of the film telling its story, but they do hurt its immersion badly.
For all the effort that goes into the setting, the story itself is rather bland. The plot hinges on Thaddeus Valentine, London’s beloved second-in-command, and his treacherous plan to wage war on the peaceful land of Shan Guo using ancient technology. The film treats obvious conclusions the viewer will jump to as major plot twists, and it’s cluttered with plot threads and supporting characters that ultimately prove to be irrelevant.
The main characters are another missed opportunity. Hester is a hardened survivor willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge on Valentine. Tom is a sheltered historian who doesn’t realize the kind of man Valentine is. Their dynamic works well enough on paper, but Hera Hilmar and Robert Sheehan lack chemistry onscreen. In the end, Tom and Hester come off as generic teen fantasy heroes without the depth or charisma to carry the story.
Watch Mortal Engines when you’re in the mood for some fantasy action and don’t mind sacrificing story quality to get it. Imaginative action and plentiful CGI give the film some appeal as a popcorn watch, but its mediocre characters and predictable story, not to mention the setting’s implausible logic, make it a disappointing watch for anyone expecting the steampunk epic it tries to be.
For teen fantasy with similar flaws that sticks to a more conventional setting, try The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. For imaginative sci-fi action with similar strengths and weaknesses, try John Carter or Gods of Egypt. For a large-scale action movie featuring heavy machinery, try Pacific Rim. For a fantasy adventure with better characters and a storybook tone, try Stardust.
6.4 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 for solid action in an imaginative setting, without the plot or characters to make the most of it.