Mortal Engines (2018)

[Greg]

Civilization, as we know it, ended in the 60 minute war. Now, a thousand years later everyone lives in giant mobile cities that can drive around the planet. The City of London is the most dangerous and it has crossed the land bridge from Britain to Europe on a quest for resources.

Why the cities are mobile was never quite explained. If they did explain it, I didn't catch it. The first thing you have to do is let that nagging question about mobile cites go.

For the first forty minutes or so, I was kind of intrigued. There's a lot of class struggle going on in the city of London. Factions between the rulers and the workers. You see the city go on a hunt for smaller cities. There's talk of the war that destroyed the world and how they hunt for this long lost tech.

Then an assassin gets in the city and tries to kill Mr. Smith. But Mr. Smith is saved by an archivist. The archivist is kicked off the city for his troubles. He hooks up with the assassin. They get captured. They get rescued. Mr. Smith and the city of London continue to do bad things. There's lots of story. It all looks really cool with a complete Steampunk vibe.

But the more the show went on, the more questions I had about motivations and why did they do that. Which just reinforces the question of why are they all in these mobile cities?

At the end I was less than satisfied.

[cranefly]

Way back before release I'd been blown away by its trailer.  But I never got a clear sense that the movie actually came out, and suddenly it was gone, and there was talk of a major misfire.  This sheds some light.  Thanks for falling on this grenade dud.

Sounds like decent eye candy but not for the long haul, and evidence that plot and character do count for something.

[Drunk Monk]

But the more the show went on, the more questions I had about motivations and why did they do that. Which just reinforces the question of why are they all in these mobile cities?

You and your motivations, Greg. That’s the film student in you. Motivations aren’t real. Things of the past. Pshaw. It’s just down to greed now. We’re in the sameness of blufffonery.

KFM was invited to the screener but it was a pass, mostly due to scheduling and lack of ... motivations. Was there swordfights?

[Greg]

There were at least two swordfights.

[Drunk Monk]

Aw bummer

Well my FOMO is justified

Not really. The initial premise put me off. Steampunk doesnt really work for me. I’m not sure why. I was amused by that tiny trend of Shanghai steampunk but it fizzled. It ran out of steam.

[Drunk Monk]

This is what happens when you put a bunch of steampunk designers together with cgi programmers but forget to add scriptwriters.  it's visually kinda interesting but void of story, which is odd since it's based on a tetralogy.  the characters come off flat.  yeah, yeah, no motivation beyond the obvious.  

the plot was a lot of poaching.  there's the terminator zombie.  there's the medusa death star and the bomber run to stop it.  there's an empire 'i'm your father' moment.  and there were swordfights and for a moment, almost a decent reason to have them in the floating city because blasters could spark the incendiary gas (i've always thought that would be a fine device for swordfights in space ships - can't blow the airlock with a gun).  

the best part was seeing bobby draper from the Expanse in a small part that was so parallel to frankie adams role as the martian marine, if her character had been very minor instead of pivotal like in the tv show.  i thought that this role here might have led to her role in the expanse but the timing isn't quite right (draper appears in s2 which was 2017 and this was 2018, was it?)  

i liked the azn outlaw because she reminded me a lot of someone i used to know, a wife of a shaolin monk actually.  but none of the actors managed to deliver a single line without sounded staged and flat.  unmotivated.  

anyway, it was such a waste and i kept wondering how it might have been redeemed, what it needed, i mean apart from motivations.  it's obvious really.  it needed bollywood dance numbers. 

not doom recommended.