Mortal Engines
Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines

2018Movie128 minEnglish

Many thousands of years in the future, Earth’s cities roam the globe on huge wheels, devouring each other in a struggle for ever diminishing resources. On one of these massive traction cities, the old London, Tom Natsworthy has an unexpected encounter with a mysterious young woman from the wastelands who will change the course of his life forever.

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Insights

IMDb6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes26%
Metacritic43/100
Google Users44%
Director: Christian RiversGenres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Plot Summary

In a post-apocalyptic world where cities roam the earth on giant wheels, a mysterious young woman named Hester Shaw teams up with Tom Natsworthy, a London outcast, to uncover a dark secret. Their quest pits them against the technologically advanced predator city of London and its ruthless leader, Thaddeus Valentine, who seeks to control the world's dwindling resources. The fate of civilization rests on their ability to expose Valentine's destructive plans and unite the scattered Traction Cities.

Critical Reception

Mortal Engines received generally negative reviews from critics, with many criticizing its convoluted plot, underdeveloped characters, and overreliance on special effects. Audiences also largely ignored the film, leading to a significant box office disappointment.

What Reviewers Say

  • Visually spectacular but narratively muddled, failing to live up to its ambitious world-building.
  • Lacks emotional depth and character development, despite a strong visual presentation.
  • A disappointing adaptation that struggles with pacing and a confusing storyline.

Google audience: Audiences found the film visually impressive with its unique concept of moving cities, but many felt the story was too complex and the characters lacked connection. Some enjoyed the action sequences, but overall, it failed to impress a significant portion of viewers.

Fun Fact

The film's production design team built over 300 miniature models for the various cities and vehicles, some of which were over 20 feet tall.

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My Review

TMDB Reviews

4 reviews
CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

From the team that brought us everything from Middle Earth comes this great to look at, but highly derivative fantasy adventure that regurgitates a hybrid of stories and spits them out pretty unremarkably. To be fair, there is charisma betw...
Per Gunnar Jonsson

Per Gunnar Jonss...

I have to say that I liked this movie a lot. It is kind of fantasy, science fiction (emphasis on fiction here) and steam punk (or perhaps I should say diesel punk) mixed together. The world is a fairly dark post apocalyptic world where m...
TalisBriedis

TalisBriedis

Good attempt. Different, unique, and the sets are great. Yeah, it has some weak points, and some of the writing/editing could have been better. But this is a refreshing change in the usual sci-fi stuff that has been coming out. Marvel a...
Gimly

Gimly

Shocking nobody, _Mortal Engines_ was not very good. Trying to jam way too much into two hours than is reasonable, it instead delivers on zero things. I guess I was **kind of** interested in the character of Shrike, but that was really the ...