After Lords of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, Peter Jackson has brought us the movie of a post-apocalyptic world. The recently released Mortal Engines serves like a candy to sore eyes but due to a poor screenplay and mediocre direction, this adventure film has failed to impress the mass audience.
Mortal Engines is a 2018 adventure film directed by Christian Rivers on a screenplay written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Jackson. The story is based on the novel of the same name by Philip Reeve. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where entire cities have been mounted on wheels and motorized, and even prey on one another. The movie's official synopsis reads as:
"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."
Mortal Engines had its world premiere on November 27, 2018, in London and was released worldwide by Universal Pictures on December 14. As of this date, the film has grossed only $7.5 million in the United States and Canada, whereas, in other territories, the film managed to earn $34.8 million, for a total worldwide gross of $42.3 million. This mammoth movie is made against a budget of $100 million, and from the looks of it, Mortal Engines might be losing a huge chunk at the box-office.
Apart from poor box-office performance, the film has even failed to impress the fans and movie critics. The film holds a meager rating of 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with the website's critical consensus reads, "Mortal Engines has no shortage of eye-catching special effects, but lacks enough high-octane narrative fuel to give this futuristic fantasy sufficient cinematic combustion."
Many movie experts are calling Mortal Engines a "steampunk Star Wars." As per Variety, an analyst revealed that Mortal Engines is a "true Christmas disaster and a lump of coal for Universal. They took a big swing, and they stuck out."
At the same time, several fans are claiming that this is by far the best sci-fi film they have seen in a long time. Here are few such tweets:
The characters are complex, the universe is rich and deep, the special effects are flawless, and the visuals are, dare I say, beautiful. I can remember a time when the Star Wars universe was this magnificent, but that was a long, long time ago ... #MortalEngines pic.twitter.com/0eXHOjI1hL
— Ervin Peter (@ervinpeter) December 14, 2018
Don't get tempted to go see mortal engines y'all. It's a trap. Terrible terrible movie
— Ovuvuevuevue Enyetuenwuevue Ugbemugbem Osas (@loadedglockk) December 17, 2018
Saw Mortal Engines yesterday, it was good... not amazing but nothing major wrong with it either. Was a nice movie, good story, visuals were great, acting was solid.... not sure what it was missing.
— Dark (@DarkGuardsman) December 17, 2018
As of now, there are no talks of turning Mortal Engines into a sequel but if the makers will follow the storyline from the previously written books, then there are chances that fans will get to see Mortal Engines 2 in a couple of years.
