Mortal Engines (2018 Film) Review

Peter Jackson's back to adapting novels. Is "Mortal Engines" another conversion done right?

"Mortal Engines" is based on the first book in a series that shares the same name. The film is set far in the future where life has gone downhill and mankind has severely depleted. To ensure that the remaining survive, they built their own mobile lands, but all is not well as the colossal London is building a weapon to dominate what's left of the world. As such, there's a rebellion seeking to stop the evildoers to put things right.

"Mortal Engines" stars Hera Hilmar as Hester Shaw, Robert Sheehan as Tom Natsworthy, and Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine. While "Mortal Engines" was made by the same creative team that made "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies, this film is not directed by Peter Jackson. Rather, it is directed by the man who won an Academy Award for his work on the Visual Effects for Jackson's "King Kong," Christian Rivers. In fact, "Mortal Engines" marks Rivers's directorial debut. This film was produced by Zane Weiner, Amanda Walker, Deborah Forte, Fran Walsh, and Peter Jackson. Jackson wrote the screenplay for "Mortal Engines" with Walsh and Philippa Boyens. This film was distributed by Universal Pictures.

Introduction

I love "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and I like "The Hobbit" trilogy, so you can imagine how I felt when it was announced that the same creative team behind those trilogies would adapt another book series. Like many book-to-film adaptations, I didn't know about the series of books until this film adaptation was announced. Since then, I listened to the first book's unabridged audiobook. (Just for a reminder, an adaptation's faithfulness to the book will not be taken into account when judging the movie.) Having familiarized myself with the source material, do the creative team still have the magic to pull off another successful book-to-film adaptation?

Overall Thoughts

No. Unfortunately, the creatives failed to work their magic on this new property. The characters are paper-thin, the story is poorly-paced, and the runtime is too short to tell the story that director Christian Rivers is trying to tell. What's funny is that this particular creative team have made very long movies in the past. Most of them were adaptations of books no less, so the fact that "Mortal Engines" barely cracks the two-hour mark surprises me. Did the studio demand a tight runtime? I can't imagine the filmmakers choosing to make this film as long as it is with the bountiful plot threads and characters that they chose to include in it. You then have a situation where a movie is a product of the runtime and not the runtime being a product of the movie. It feels like the creative team made the movie they wanted to make, but in editing, the studio forced them to cut it down into the time allotted to them. That, or the resulting runtime was mandated from the start and they crammed as much of their story in as they could. Either way, the film is so packed and ill-timed that it hurts important parts like character development or story. It'll try to have emotional scenes, but you struggle to shed a tear because the relationship between characters didn't feel that developed.

The Cast

While the performances are decent, the actors are handed the flimsiest of roles. The characters aren't the least bit original as you've seen these types of heroes and villains many times before. The writers don't try to make them interesting or dynamic and the good work these actors put in feel wasted.

For example, I love Hugo Weaving. He's one of my favorite actors, but he has almost no role in the story. He's the typical villain who wants to do typical villain things and while Weaving himself tries to save the role, he can't hide how underutilized the character is. Most of the characters are that way. The actors turn in adequate performances overall, but they unceremoniously drop out of the story for a period of time, only to show up again to do nothing of importance. The motivations behind most of these characters is unclear, so when the music rises during what's supposed to be a triumphant scene, it doesn't work at all.

I will say that Hera Hilmar plays the best character in the film. She's not written especially unique, but at the very least, you understand who she is, what she wants, and most importantly, you see how she develops throughout the story. Of course, there's a romance that blossoms between her and Robert Sheehan's character, but though they shared one in the books, it feels so tacked on here that I wish that the filmmakers would've left it out of the film.

Action/ CGI/Score

The more technical aspects of "Mortal Engines" is where I have significantly more positive criticisms. Still, I wasn't entirely thrilled by the action sequences in the film. The score made it feel more energized, but for as fascinated as I was with the designs of the vehicles, the action felt underwhelming. Partially because I didn't care for the characters much and also because of the sloppy editing. The action sequences use the divisive shaky cam method. Done right, it can fit into the tone of the film. In "Mortal Engines," there's no reason to have the camera always cutting and shaking during what's meant to be exhilarating fight sequences. You can't see anything that's happening. The frame refuses to focus on the action for a few seconds. I wanted to enjoy these bombastic sequences, but the camerawork didn't allow me to.

The CGI is the main part of "Mortal Engines" that almost makes it worth seeing in theaters. When I listened to the first book, I was heard the narrator give out descriptions of what these titanic machines looked like. I thought to myself that this would be a perfect series to adapt into film because then you could see for yourself what the book was talking about. The movie does not disappoint in that it brings to life this world through stunning visual effects. It's all seamless, it's entirely believable, and the amount of detail is staggering. You feel the weight of these objects and the sounds effects that come from these vehicles moving is played up to give a sense of scale. The look of the film comes across as imaginative and original, rather than a cheap knock-off of another fantasy world which most certainly would've come to pass if this film was handled by less talented effects artists.

With each passing score, I'm becoming more of a fan of Tom Holkenborg, otherwise known as Junkie XL. Holkenborg's score breathes life into "Mortal Engines," a film that sorely lacks energy outside of impressive effects work. It's a similar situation that also happened earlier this year with "Tomb Raider." The man added some wonderful compositions to that film and in doing so, he made that film much more entertaining.

If it's one thing that Tom Holkenborg does well when composing scores, it's creating thunderous themes that echo throughout the entire film, not just the action sequences. You could make an argument that this kind of music should be saved for the action scenes, but the score consistently maintains a sense of grandness even without the music always blaring in your ears. It's so heavily utilized that it eliminates any possibility of there being any filler. So, on the whole, this score is quite good. Will it be remembered as one of the best of 2018? No, others were better, but the music allows you to get emotionally invested in the film despite the characters being dull and boring.

Grade: C

Though "Mortal Engines" is technically flawless and successfully brings to life idiosyncratic designs, the story and characters leave much to be desired.

If you're seeking a film that's a technical wonder yet short on story and character, "Mortal Engines" may be worth seeing in theaters. Otherwise, you may want see "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" or "Creed II" for the first, second, or third time. If you are going to see this in theaters, make the choice quick and see this on the biggest screen you can find while such an option is still available.

Conclusion

And that concludes my review for "Mortal Engines." Do you plan on seeing this in theaters, or at all for that matter? Have you already seen the film? Regardless of whether you have, what did you think of my review? I'm Dallin, your resident Film Fanatic, and I'll return soon with another review.