MORTAL ENGINES

RELEASED OUT NOW! 12a | 128 minutes

Director Christian rivers Cast robert sheehan, Hera Hilmar, Hugo Weaving, stephen lang

Mortal Engines’ problems are as massive as its vision (based on Philip Reeve’s YA book) of motorised towns and cities steamrolling their way over a far-future Earth.

Tom (Robert Sheehan) is a citizen of a monstrous London, now a rumbling, tree-crushing juggernaut. He stops the assassination of esteemed visionary Valentine (Hugo Weaving) by scarred avenger, Hester (Hera Hilmar), but he overhears something he shouldn’t and Valentine kicks him off London. Joining with Hester, poor Tom is flung into breathless adventures, with much running, jumping and flying.

What he lacks is humour, charm or characterisation. There are moments of flair and gusto in the action and camerawork, but the characters barely register. The great exception is a Frankenstein’s monster-style adversary played with pathos by Stephen Lang.

Visually, the scale is chronically unconvincing, the “giant” cities and structures often feeling like models. Terry Gilliam could have worked magic with such unrealistic effects; there’s no magic here.

Mortal Engines is bad… yet it’s a good bad film, so oversized and overstuffed that it’s seldom dull. Despite the erratic visuals, the efforts to convey a huge world and adventure are admirable, and the apocalyptic finale is both outrageously clichéd and shamelessly enjoyable. Andrew Osmond