IN MY OPINION:
Mortal Engines is an entertaining S-D ( Steampunk - Dystopian ) film which has been made under the direction of Christian Rivers who is also the director of the two critically acclaimed movies - The Hobbit triology ( prequel to The Lord of the Rings ) and The Lord of the Rings series. These two fantasy and adventure driven stories have been penned by Peter Jackson who pulls off Mortal Engines into a re-imagining state. As Jackson is the co-writer and co-producer of Mortal Engines, he collaborates with Christian Rivers to make this a heavily CGI-ed film whose author is Philip Reeve. Mortal Engines is among the first of four novels in Philip Reeve's quartet of the same name. According to the book, the story is based on a futuristic, steampunk version of the city of London, where they have created huge machines which in turn are striving to survive on a world running out of resources.
STAR - CAST:
Hera Hilmar, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Lang, Robert Sheehan, Colin Salmon, Caren Pistorius and Patrick Malahide.
PLOT OF THE MOVIE:
The movie starts showing up the post-apocalyptic future of Earth which has been reduced to a devastated landscape. All this has been the result of the 60-minute war where they use a very powerful fusion weapon which had wiped out the "ancient world "of the 21st century a 1000+ years ago. Now, all the remaining cities have become mobile traction cities that roam on the barren lands of Earth which are nothing but called as the Mortal Engines.
Amongst them, the giant ones hunt and swallow up the smaller ones, enslaving their population and take away all their resources and materials for fuel. Most importantly, these so called traction cities scavenge their materials for what they call it as a low tech - valuable machinery and the ancient world's technology.
London is the principle traction city shown in the film whose captain is Thaddeus Valentine ( Hugo Weaving ) and Magnus Crome ( Patrick Malahide ) as the mayor, both being unbeatable. However, when sinister Thaddeus is attacked by a disfigured assassin named Hester Shaw ( Hera Hilmar ) , his dangerous intentions come to surface. A young historian named Tom ( Robert Sheehan ) meets Hester and together they found Thaddeus'hazardous secret plan. Now its in their hands on how to prevent Thaddeus from starting another war that will be threatening the safety of the world.
PERFORMANCES:
When it comes to performances, everyone had a equal time sharing throughout the film. The real and true champions behind the film's success is Peter Jackson and Christian Rivers who have created an entertaining and fascinating world created by author Philip Reeve. Jackson together with other two writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens worked on the script and delivered it under the direction of Rivers. All of them together have created such an exciting world which is a visual treat to watch on the big screens.
MUSIC:
The musician Junkie XL's lofty background score perfectly fuses into the fantasy.
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
This section of the movie is the top scorer for its great special affects. Mortal Engines is among those films which should be experienced in the theatres for its grandiose scale and eye-appealing CGI visuals where the cities are roaming around.
MY SUGGESTION TO YOU:
Even though the high-scale usage of CGI and large scale focus on world buildings has overshadowed the performances of the actors, Mortal Engines still remains an entertaining fantasy and adventurous movie.
I suggest you to watch this movie in theatres for its outstanding visual effects and for getting the ultimate Sci-fi movie watching experience in its true sense.
MY RATING:
3/5
