This is going to lose so much money. I rather loved it or at least enjoyed it in its own flawed, peculiar way. If it were presented without end credits, I would honestly assume it is a film by the Wachowski sisters rather than Peter Jackson (by way of his long-time storyboard artist and F/X technician Christian Rivers). From its diverse casting to its costumes and sets, it feels very infused with the spirit of the Wachowskis at their most madcap and divisive (see: the Zion scenes in the Matrix sequels, the post-apocalyptic story in Cloud Atlas).

I enormously enjoyed reveling in the world building here, and the images of the oversized, rusting moving cities tearing across the scorched landscape are gorgeously executed and highly cinematic. The acting is decent, too; Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar nicely blends grit and vulnerability as the heroine, and almost no actor on earth furrows his brow with more sinister authority than Hugo Weaving.

The storytelling definitely feels cramped despite a healthy run time of around 2 hours and ten minutes; the arc, for example, of Stephen Lang's robot-zombie hybrid is compelling, but it is an awful lot to explain, shade, and bring to an earned emotional conclusion within the limited space of a subplot in an already very busy film.

This must have cost a lot. I mean, it's no different than all the other fantasy end-of-the-world teen blockbusters we've been fed in recent years, but this one looks like its reported budget. Divergent, Hunger Games, Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, The Maze Runner, and now Mortal Engines. They're all lame. But I didn't mind this as much. It's totally weird how there's a futuristic world with mechanical moving cities and electric-powered cars yet people have reverted back to using pocket watches and dressing like 19th century pirates, but as the action goes on and the plot propels itself it becomes passable.

I particularly liked the character called Shrek. His name is Shrike, but they definitely only ever called him Shrek. He's like a cross between the ABC Robot from Judge Dredd, 9 from 9, and the T-800 from The Terminator. He's a great character with a terrific presence.

The story is a complete rip-off of many other established franchises. If you watch it and don't see the similarities to Star Wars and The Matrix, then you're as blind as a bat. It even has an "I'm your father" reveal, lol. It's also a bit of a con. I swear the marketing led me to believe that it's a world of huge cities on wheels fighting other cities on wheels, but that only happens once, right at the start. Then it never happens again. It's mostly people chasing people.

This type of film is about 15 years too late. If it came out in that Golden Compass era, it could have been a mild hit. But people have moved on and they don't want this crap anymore.

Maybe its because I had to sit through the bore fest that was Robin Hood before I saw this, but honestly I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It definitely looks like it cost a lot of money, because the special effects look great and it definitely feels pretty epic in terms of the scope at times. The performances aren't bad either and the characters are surprisingly likable for the most part, especially Sheehan who I am starting to like more and more as an actor the more movies I see the guy in. Stephen Lang's character was just fucking awesome though. Such a badass and terrifying design and loved every minute he was onscreen. Hell even his death was kind of effective IMO, although it did feel crammed into this movie with so much already going on. Hugo Weaving didn't have a whole lot to do, but overall he was a pretty serviceable villain.

B

So boring movie

Already wasted time in the cinema... I won't waste more time writing about it.

Cheers...