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Published On: Fri, Dec 21st, 2018

‘Mortal Engines’ is a visually stunning ‘Star Wars’ ‘Hunger Games’ ‘Transformers’ amalgam, set to be ‘Rocky Horror’

Set hundreds of years after the “Sixty Minute War” has plundered the world and forced mankind to adapt to a harsh new reality, Mortal Engines plunges us into a steampunk version of David vs. Goliath where mobile cities chase down and takeover smaller towns that are barely surviving.  Interesting concept that sets you on a path filled with action, confusion, questions, and more references to other pop culture films than you would ever expect.

The two adjectives that come to mind most are “confusing and predictable”.  Days after watching this Peter Jackson film, I’m still not clear on what caused the apocalyptic war across the globe.  It is indirectly explained that mankind destroyed itself, but it may have been an accident or an intentional world war involving such incredible weapons that it didn’t take long to pummel life as we know it.

So how could this be predictable when it sounds so unique?  Simple.  The film-makers took all the surprise moments of other popular films and dropped them into their story. Familiar scenes or concepts are throughout the entire production.  The Hunger Games and it’s districts of varying wealth after a war were the first to show up.  Then the “traction cities” (which were actually pretty cool) are like giant Transformers.  Next we meet an orphaned heroine who witnessed her mother’s murder like Star Wars’ Rogue One.  Believe it or not, the Terminator is even included with a murderous robot who learns how to love and protect a child.  As I wondered what they had missed, the Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker parental reveal was added as the cherry on top!

If you are familiar with the Scary Movie concept of blending story lines from other films, then you have an idea of what Mortal Engines is minus the blatant parody angle.  Maybe this will become the next Rocky Horror Picture Show with the audience participation providing the most entertaining component of the experience.  If that happens, don’t forget that it was predicted on The Global Dispatch first.

If you really want to enjoy the movie, be sure to bring along a Y chromosome (the younger the better).  Full disclosure, my middle-aged husband loved it and kept telling me how good it was despite all my comments.  I keep wondering if the book series are more unique without such a “copycat” feel to them.

Mortal Engines gets 3 stars out of 5 stars

Author: Debbie Sage

Jackson produced the film, which stars Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide and Stephen Lang.

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Displaying 1 Comments
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  1. Stephen Gordon says:

    Still, this gives enough curiosity to watch the movie especially knowing the people behind them made blockbuster movies before.

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