Discover a unique world in ‘Mortal Engines’

Posted on December 21, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

Let’s face it, film adaptations of teen-targeting novels set in dystopian futures are a dime a dozen these days. Making matters worse, most feature an angsty teen who meets another angsty teen with whom they fall in love while overthrowing a totalitarian government or two.

After countless examples, Hollywood needs to deliver something new to really pique my interest. And that’s exactly what the trailers did for “Mortal Engines,” produced by Peter Jackson (“Lord of the Rings”) and directed by Christian Rivers, who worked on most of Jackson’s blockbusters in the story-boarding and special effects departments.

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of another special-effects-heavy dystopian tale, but the world building and unique settings more than make up for any issues I have with the script. And even those problems aren’t too prevalent, mostly consisting of the usual pains resulting from condensing a novel into a two-hour movie. There’s more than a few coincidences, especially in the second act, but I found myself liking the film’s characters more than I expected. Plenty of the usual tropes are at play here, but again, there are enough new flourishes thrown in that I didn’t mind.

It’s not perfect, but “Mortal Engines” provides lots of fun and a very unique world.

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