Quick Reviews: Mortal Engines

How do you lose a Studio over $150 million?  Apparently it involves lots of ambition, lots of bad choices and banking your success on a very unfamiliar property.  See for yourself...

In a dark future, the World is cracked (not that we see much impact of that) and people live in Cities that drive around like Jeeps.

I saw the Film and I'm *still* not sure how THAT was the first and best idea?  Do I have to read the Book?!?

The 'city' of London comes 'America' and it is unofficially run by Hugo Weaving.  I'm sure he's not secretly-evil.

Just a reminder- he turned down doing more MCU Films because "I think I’ve done my dash with that sort of film. It was good to do it and try it out, but to be honest, it’s not the sort of film I seek out and really am excited by."

So what is this $150 million plus Movie exactly?

The Plot involves a scarred woman trying to kill him and stop him from making a super-weapon.  His solution: send this Robot after her.

There's so much silly to unpack with this Character, but I'm going to focus more on how he constantly stops the Narrative and makes the Film reach 2 hours!

The girl- and an out-of-his-element Male Lead- must team up with some rebels to stop him and...yeah, this is just Star Wars now.

Plucky Rebels, Super-Weapon, Mobile Base, Aerial Assault and Heroic Sacrifice- all of it.

Can they save the day?  Will this Film end properly or just more Sequel-bait (that is likely not going to happen)?  To find out, watch the Film.  It's now on Streaming and Pay Cable.

An interesting premise that just gets too generic.  It's weird to think that a Film that begins with cities driving around like giant monster trucks can get predictable and by-the-numbers.  Congrats?  Once you get past the interesting start, you're stuck deep in a weird mix of YA Tropes and dense exposition.  There are brief glimmers of something interesting- like them viewing Minions as 'Ancient Historical Objects'-, but only that much.  So many things are just obvious- he's going to join the Rebels, she's going to fall for him- that there's no real drama for alot of it.  As for the Plot, you have talk of some great disaster, people looking for parts for a super-weapon, explaining why people live in squalor when blimps exist and more.  It just slows the whole thing down so much that the ending feels rushed.  All of a sudden, they're all flying around, projectiles are flying everywhere and all sorts of action is happening.  Pacing- what's that?!?  Ironically, so much of the Plot is built around the idea of learning from the past (even having one guy be an Historian).  Yet, the people behind this didn't seem to see the crash of this Sub-Genre and the very-limited success.  Golden Compass failed to start.  Divergent barely sputtered to an end.  Stuff like Cirque De Freak, Eragon, Vampire Academy and The 5th Wave were non-starters.  Hell, a Film/Book Series with a similar name- Mortal Instruments- had to go to TV to finish its Story!  All in all, the Film looks neat, but feels very empty by the end.  While I'm mocking everything, let me point out how this actual Book Cover looks like rejected Wizard of Oz Fan Art...

An interesting First Act, a plodding Second and an all-too-familiar Third.  There's some good here, but you have to really look for it.