Peter Jackson is adept at delivering films with amazing visual appeal. When I learned he was a producer on Mortal Engines, I decided I would check the film out in IMax 3D. Particularly since there is not an additional charge for the format for members of AMC's A-List. With a budget of 140 million dollars, I was certain that the film would be a visiaul treat, if nothing else. I was right on both accounts. A visual treat. Nothing else.
Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) is a rebel with a personal axe to grind. Pulse weapons created a post-apocalyptic world where cities have become mechanized. The behemoth metropolis' canibalize smaller mechanized communities as it motors around Europe looking for victims. London is a behemoth, consuming everything in her path. Thadeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) is the architect of London's destructive existence. His path is about to cross with Hester Shaw after leaving her for dead a decade ago. Shaw intends to take Valentine down. She is joined in her endeavor by Londonite Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) who thwarts her attempt to kill Valentine only to end up depending upon Shaw for his survival. As London's dark secret is about to be revealed, Hester and Tom will team up with a misfit band of rebels to stop London's destructive rampage.
The one bright spot with my experience is that this film was included in my A-List subscription. So I didn't actually pay to see it. I will also give the film points for the visual qualities of the film, but that is just not enough. The story was contrived and weak. The story is based on a book by Philip Reeve. I am sure the novel must have been better than the screenplay. There wasn't enough time for full character development, creating a sense that the characters lacked dimension and relationships were not fully vetted or changed to quickly. The relationship between Tom and Hester was particularly important but felt rushed. But I was also interested in learning more about Katherine Valentine and Bevis Pod. The plot itself was a bit shallow and predictable. This film ran past two hours, yet didn't seem to have enough time to develop characters or deliver a worthwhile story. The massive budget was wasted on exceptional special effects to tell a story that was mediocre at best. It was a waste of great technology on tepid story telling.
The characters depended on great performances to make up for poor writing. Yet the casting was a mixed bag. The only characters I really thought owned their roles were Weaving as Valentine and Ronan Raftery as Pod. And the latter was a very minor role. Hilmar was okay, but I wasn't fully buying in to her character. I really didn't much care what happened to her or Tom. I was not familiar with quite a few of the British actors that populated this film. The acting was solid, but not exceptional. But I don't want to blame this tripe on the actors. They had little to work with, so I need to find some balance in evaluating their contributions. What I can say with authority is that you won't be seeing any Oscar nominees in this lot.
Mortal Engines is a solid PG-13 film. The movie manages to keep the objectionable material contextual and limited in order to eke out a teen and tween-friendly rating. This is a story geared toward young adults, so that rating was likely forefront in the mind of the producers when they created this slop. The rating was primarily related to violence. There were some intense action sequences and a few battles, although limited single combat. There was also talk of selling humans as sausage meet and other references to cannibalism. Overall, these factors were contextual and delivered with a soft hand to ensure that the MPAA gave this film a rating geared towards the target audience. However, I think the target audience may also be a bit bored with this shallow tale. The film has a run time of two hours, eight minutes.
IMDb is kind to this film. The rating currently sits at 6.5. I think that is based on two factors. Early voting by fans of the book and fans of the visual qualities of this film. The visual aspects of this film are stunning. I would expect nothing less from a project involving Peter Jackson. However, is this a story that really needed to be told? This film was basically Star Wars with an apocalyptic setting. The story was predictable, shallow and lacked good character development. Visuals are not enough for me to give a film a recommendation. I am going to depart wildly from the IMDb rating and give this film a non-recommendation. 5/10.
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