More failed YA. So this is a universe where the apocalypse only took an hour to alter the entire world. It’s not really clear why, but cities and towns now roam the countryside, with the biggest metropolises ingesting the smaller villages for fuel. Sounds crazy, right? Well, that is only a small part of the equation, because there are two young people with romantic tension, a tyrannical leader, a conspiracy and a whole lot of familiar tropes. Now when it comes to young adult franchises (let’s face it, they want every single one of these things to have 4 – 8 movies), you really have three factions: studios trying to get that Harry Potter money, studios trying to get that Twilight money, and studios trying to get that Hunger Games money. Mortal Engines falls mostly into column C, but even then, it doesn’t even feel like one of the good knockoffs. This is closer to Divergent than anything, and we all know how that turned out: interest waned so quickly that they canceled their last movie. If you’ve been tracking these movies in any capacity, it should come as no surprise that this is one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
Hunger Game knockoffs ran out of speed like 4 years ago.
Now I spent the entirety of this movie thinking that this was directed by Peter Jackson. I was shocked because once the opening action sequence was finished, this started to just spin its wheels, and even when he is at his worst, Peter Jackson is at least watchable. Then I found out as the end credits were rolling that he was just a producer, and that made everything else make more sense. This movie is just a hodgepodge of better science fiction films, and it is watered down to the point that any unique flavor is completely washed out. You have Terminator, Matrix, and even some Star Wars, and because it is lifting from such iconic properties, you can see right through it. There is a difference between paying homage and ripping off something, and they clearly think that because they made everything steampunk, they have a pass to steal from the greats. I don’t really blame the actors in this, but everybody in this is playing a type. You can tell who is good and who is bad as soon as they show their face, and honestly, you can probably figure out who the bad guy is simply by giving the cast list a quick once over. It doesn’t take the time to build characters, it just gives exposition in flashbacks, thinking that is going to give you enough of a reason to care. It doesn’t.
If you tell me that you don’t think of The Matrix when you see this character, I don’t believe you.
This movie is clunky as can be. I can tell that it has a big budget and that they funneled money in from many different angles, but that doesn’t change the fact that for the majority of the time, I felt like I was just looking at a special effect; because they never take the time to make me care about any of these characters, I don’t care about what is exploding on screen. Mortal Engines is marginally watchable at points, but you can do so much better, especially when you consider that this is over two hours long.
Mortal Engines (2018) **
– Critic for Hire
Critic for Hire 