WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Hundreds of years after civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, a mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), emerges as the only one who can stop London — now a giant, predator city on wheels — from devouring everything in its path. Feral, and fiercely driven by the memory of her mother, Hester joins forces with Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), an outcast from London, along with Anna Fang (Jihae), a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head.
MoviesInMo Review
Mortal Engines starts with so much promise. There’s a chase that should have set the tone for the rest of the movie, but immediately after it, they change direction. I didn’t think it was possible to put that much work into a film and have it be this boring. From the trailers, Mortal Engines looks somewhat entertaining. Turns out it had some decent parts with a story that had a hard time trying to explain itself. Because of this, the movie never reaches its full potential, and the story is all over the place. The action sequences are almost frame-by-frame copies of other more popular films like Star Wars and Mad Max. When there’s no action, they try and explain the story and hope you’ll get into it. It’s a story that barely makes sense on paper, considering it’s not that old. The series of books started in 2001. The real problem has to be the steampunk setting. Most people don’t know, don’t understand, or like steampunk but because this genre has a small (but always growing) following, movie studios tend to produce one or two of these every year. I wish I could say that was the only problem with this film, but it’s not. Mortal Engines, as glorious as it looks, suffers from sub-par acting, predictable timeworn movie stereotypes, and a story that’s not that easy to follow unless you’ve read the books. In the end, Mortal Engines promises so much but delivers so little, and that’s just how much this boring film will make.
OUR RATING – A DISAPPOINTING 3
MEDIA
- Genre – Fantasy
- Street date
- Digital – February 19th, 2019
- DVD/Blu-Ray – March 12th 2019
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 2.39:1
- Sound – English Dolby Atmos / French Canadian Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 / Latin Spanish Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
- Subtitles – English SDH, French, Swedish
Extras
- Welcome to London – In this 5-part, behind-the-scenes look, filmmakers reveal the secrets behind the ambitious undertaking of putting an entire city on wheels.
- Building the Beast
- Levels of London
- The Smallest Details
- London Museum
- Medusa and St. Paul’s
- Feature Commentary with Director Christian Rivers
- End of the Ancients – Discover the secrets of the Sixty Minute War as you travel through the London Museum. Hosted by the Guild of Historians, hear what brought an end to the Ancients thousands of years before the events of Mortal Engines.
- Character Series – An in-depth look at the characters of Mortal Engines.
- Hester Shaw
- Tom Natsworthy
- Anna Fang
- Thaddeus Valentine
- Shrike
- In the Air – Join the Anti-Traction League as they reveal what went into the creation of Airhaven.
- Film New Zealand – Go behind-the-scenes of the incredible, cinematic country of New Zealand.