 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: Some scars never heal. 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. Storyline: A mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw, emerges as the only one who can stop a giant, predator city on wheels devouring everything in its path. Feral, and fiercely driven by the memory of her mother, Hester joins forces with Tom Natsworthy, an outcast from London, along with Anna Fang, a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head. Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 9, 2019 Mortal Engines' story -- on and off the screen -- isn't at all dissimilar from so many other recent films. It's based on a book, this one written by Philip Reeve, first published in 2001. The story concerns characters fighting for survival in a nearly dead Steampunk-inspired dystopian post-apocalyptic future, a world where man long ago nearly wiped himself out, leaving behind only a handful of survivors. The hook for this one centers around mobile cities that are like sand crawlers from Star Wars but on a humongous scale, powered by steam engines and the largest of them big enough to be considered thriving metropolises. The primary story concerns a young woman out for revenge against a man who killed her mother and who may be plotting to destroy humanity all over again. It's very basic stuff, and the only thing that's groundbreaking here comes in how the cities break apart whatever ground they drive through and atop, leaving practically unscalable, many-feet-deep tire tracks in their wake. Many years ago the "ancients" engaged in a great war that in only sixty minutes brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Those who did not perish created mobile settlements in an effort to survive on a dying Earth. The strong wiped out the weak and thrived in their victories. Now, it is the age of the predator cities. The largest amongst them -- London -- chase down and absorb the lesser, taking in the displaced populations and using the conquered machines for their own gain. London's Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving), the city's Head of the Guild of Historians, believes "Muniucipal Darwinism" is a dying tactic and has turned to the ancients -- the same ancients who nearly wiped out humanity -- to find an old answer to this new world's problems. When London absorbs a small city called "Salzhaken," Valentine finds himself in one of its inhabitants' crosshairs. Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) has lived her entire adult life looking for him in order to exact revenge for her mother's death. A failed assassination attempt winds up with Shaw on the run, paired with a young historian named Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) and allied with the mysterious Anna Fang (Jihae) as they fight against London -- and their own pasts -- as part of the rebellious Anti-Traction League. Mortal Engines can't shake a feeling of familiarity despite its grand visions of the fantastic. Where the film finds its problem is that while its vision of the fantastic may be exclusive to it, audiences can only see so many films with their own take on the "fantastic" before it all begins to feel stale, to run together, particularly in this current wave of post-apocalyptic survival tales that have taken the YA Lit and event-effects PG-13 movie worlds by storm. And that's the story with this one. While the film is competently put together and boasts a seamless blend of practical and CGI visuals, the film does nothing to differentiate itself beyond the outward appearance. Characters are stock, conflict is contrived, and the movie barely elevates to a workable, watchable level. The film banks on awing its audience through the scope and scale of its action scenes, the best of which comes right out of the gate when "London" absorbs the much smaller Salzhaken. It's all downhill from there. No plot reveal, no character intro, no action, no drama can lead the film to anything of memorable relevance. It's a cut-and-dry experience that was certainly made with care for its outward appearances but with little concern for its human interest center. The movie's best performances com from its digital constructs. The big, mobile cities -- particularly London but also the smaller habitations, too -- are intricately designed with countless moving parts that all seem to play some purpose. The designs are impressively ingenious, and while they're wholly impractical and must be a nightmare to maintain, they make for both an interesting and imposing screen presence, particularly in action and maneuvering at high speed during various chase sequences. Unfortunately, the human cast of characters are soulless from the top-down. There's precious little of narrative interest or compelling human drama in any of their stories, even in the protagonist-antagonist angle. The Stalker Shrike, played by Stephen Lang and clearly modeled after The Terminator, is the film's most compelling character for its look, its backstory, and its place in the film's present-day as a relentless pursuer. It's more than a little ironic and more than little telling that the film's best characterization and most interesting components are more technological than human: the Stalker and the Traction Cities. Mortal Engines flourishes in its opening chase but runs into trouble once it introduces things like its characters and plot. The movie is technically fine, but long gone are the days when spectacle and scope alone can carry a film, if those day really ever existed at all. The film is far from a train wreck, but it's also not the franchise-starter the filmmakers and studios certainly envisioned it to be. Poor box office returns and uninspiring critical reviews may have stopped these Engines in their tracks. Universal's Blu-ray is very good, though, featuring the expectedly high quality video and audio presentations. A handful of extras are included. Rent it. [CSW] -3.4- Cities on wheels that gobble up smaller towns in a post apocalyptic world?. Color me a sucker for great 3D ready CGI even if there was no real character development or backstory until about an hour into the film. The 2 main leads may be generally unlikable but in a story with this many plot holes they are only relied on to advance the action. There are also multiple cliche'd moments that foreshadow an obvious death/explosion/revelation. But the CGI eye candy may be enough for me to spend the extra bucks for the British 3D Blu-ray (the U.S. has stopped distributing 3D). I can't give it a high rating for many of the reasons listed above but the 3D version is a blast. [V5.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box really enhanced this movie. Cast Notes: Hera Hilmar (Hester Shaw), Robert Sheehan (Tom Natsworthy), Hugo Weaving (Thaddeus Valentine), Jihae (Anna Fang [as Jihae Kim]), Ronan Raftery (Bevis Pod), Leila George (Katherine Valentine), Patrick Malahide (Magnus Crome), Stephen Lang (Shrike), Colin Salmon (Chudleigh Pomeroy), Mark Mitchinson (Vambrace), Regé-Jean Page (Captain Khora), Menik Gooneratne (Sathya), Frankie Adams (Yasmina Rashid), Leifur Sigurdarson (Nils Lindstrom), Kahn West (Toa Heke). IMDb Rating (03/23/19): 7.3/10 from 2,774 users
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