'Mortal Engines' Deserves to Flop

Mortal Engines is a steampunk adventure film that is based on the YA novel of the same name.  It’s set in a future where an apocalyptic war ravaged the world, and somehow led the remnants of humanity to turn entire cities into gigantic, mobile vehicles.  This inevitability creates the philosophy of “Municipal Darwinism”, in which large “predator” cities hunt down and devour smaller cities to cannibalize their resources.

The plot centers on a brooding young woman named Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) who is driven by the desire of avenging her mother against her murderer, Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving).  When Valentine re-constructs a devastating ancient superweapon called the “Medusa” and leads the great predator city of London toward conquering the peaceful “static settlements” of the Anti-Traction League, Hester has to team up with Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), an apprentice historian exiled from London, and Anna Fang (Jihae), an Anti-Traction League operative with a large bounty on her head, to stop Valentine.  Meanwhile, a “Stalker” – a zombie cyborg – named Shrike (Stephen Lang) is out to get Hester for his own mysterious reasons.

This movie is a disastrous box office flop, estimated to have lost more than a hundred million dollars.  And it’s easy to see why.  Not only was it foolishly released in the same time as Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, and Bumblebee, but it’s also simply a rather boring, cluttered, forgettable film.

Its “cities on wheels”-hunting-down-each-other premise is dumb but honestly fascinating (reminded me somewhat of Howl’s Moving Castle).  Unfortunately, the appeal from this wears off quickly.  On top of that, the storyline never really gives this aspect much focus after the first couple of minutes.

The story is both all over the place and bland.  A lot of stuff happen, but nothing of legit interest does.  Characters lack depth, and it doesn’t require any deep thought to realize that a couple of their decisions and motivations don’t make sense.  None of the plot threads are given the chance to marinate well.  And thus, it’s just impossible to care for what’s happening on screen.

I watched Mortal Engines to give it a chance; I really hoped I would find enjoyment from it.  After all, it does happen from time to time that I get to like movies that didn’t fare well in reviews and/or ticket sales (and, usually, they’re sci-fi like Mortal Engines, e.g. John Carter, Battleship, and Jupiter Ascending).  However, in this case, I didn’t.