Mortal Engines (Dir Christian Rivers, 2h 8m)

I should start this review with a caveat. You see, when I was a kid, whilst Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were series I enjoyed reading, Phillip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet, of which the titular book is the first, was a series i loved reading. A series in which the cities of the world have taken to wheels, and the like, moving around a world in the aftermath of an apocalyptic war in search of resources, with a mobile London holding a deadly weapon to change the world forever, it was a smart, well written book with excellently fleshed out, flawed, but memorable characters, complex morals, and an nigh-perfect narrative arc for its two main characters.

Why do I note all this? Mortal Engines the film, at first glance certainly seems to capture the spirit of the film-London, and the other cities look the part, like a mix of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle and the work of Terry Gillam, with Jackson and Weta's usual care taken in making the locations, effects, and feel of the place seem as real as possible. Certainly, when, as the film begins, London is chasing down prey, or simply moving across screen, the effects work, sound design and the very feel of this world in action is excellent, from start to finish, and in its nigh-non-stop chase across the destroyed Europe, Mortal Engines calls to mind the frantic chase of Miller's Mad Max Fury Road, albeit on a colossal scale, down to having a score by Junkie XL himself.

However, whilst the world and its vehicles are excellently rendered, the same cannot, unfortunately, be said of the cast. Whilst Hera Hilmar's Hester Shaw, a vengeful orphan who seeks revenge on Hugo Weaving's archeologist turned power hungry dictator, Valentine, does at points reach the chaotic confused nature of Hester as a character, both destructive and self-destructive, at other points she takes a back seat in her own story, and perhaps sanitised, in appearance and demeanour. And indeed, the removal of Hester's heavy scarring including the loss of her eye, to a more photogenic one, which, unlike in the novel, remains uncovered for much of the film, rather compounds how little Peter Jackson, whose project this really is, and who wrote the script, truly understands the world of Mortal Engines.

What Mortal Engines the film is, in short, is a simplified, sanitised version of the novel, up until its third act-much of the grittier elements are removed in favour of daring do, the vast majority of the cast are, for lack of a better word, prettified-Hester is by far the worst example, but, with the possible exception of Tom, (a decent turn from Robert Sheenan, who seems to grow into the role at the very point the film veers away from the book), most of the characters have had minor to substantial changes made to them. Chief among these is Anna Fang, played by Jihae, who, whilst giving the character a degree of wit and gravitas indicates the reluctance of the cast to have anything other than attractive heroes and dull-looking villains-this is a part better suited to an older, tougher actress, such as Michelle Yeoh, rather than an actress barely out of her twenties.

Even despite the excellent Stephen Lang as the at once sympathetic and terrifying Shrike-a terminator-esque Remade Man, who acted as guardian for Hester until she ran away and now seeks revenge, there is a sense of this being yet another eh-tier fantasy adaption-the nuance is stripped away, the plot simplified, and worst of all, a third act in which the film goes wildly off course, and unfortunately becomes rather formulaic, with, oddest of all, references to A New Hope in the defeat of a key villain, and a Shyamalan-bad level twist regarding a certain character cropping up, before an ending that neither satisfies nor bodes well for a film of any of the three future books. Worse, the film's ending note of love despite differences is completely lost in the mix.

And yet, in motion, Mortal Engines is a rollicking good ride-one in which the visual storytelling is much stronger than any narrative one. Assuming that one has not read the book, if one wanted to see a steampunk Mad Maxish fable of revenge, directed by Terry Gillam, one could do worse than Mortal Engines. As for the fans of the book...we still have the book, and join the fans of countless cinematic adaptions sold short by the greed of highly mobile predator studios. Oh too mortal.

Rating: Neutral