MORTAL ENGINES
(12A)
SHORTLY after the digitally-rendered dust settles on an eye-popping action sequence which opens Mortal Engines, the thorny issue of Brexit ripples thousands of years into our desolate future.
“Going into Europe – biggest mistake we ever made,” despairs the Mayor of London (Patrick Malahide) as he surveys a postapocalyptic wasteland dotted with motorised cities mounted on caterpillar tracks.
Adapted from the novel of the same title by Philip Reeve, Christian Rivers’ rollicking action adventure doesn’t stoke that political fire any further but does make a few mis-steps over the course of two enjoyable hours.
The script penned by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson, engineers of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, idles in first gear for the initial 20 minutes.
More than once, first-time director Rivers falls back on his Oscarwinning background as a visual effects supervisor and allows spectacle to trump substance.
Mortal Engines is bolted together from the first book of a four-part odyssey set many centuries after the cataclysmic Sixty Minute War. Survivors huddle on mobile metropolises fashioned from scavenged parts that “ingest” the resources of rival cities to feed roaring furnaces.
The largest of these behemoths is London, commanded by Mayor Magnus Crome (Patrick Malahide) with guidance from academic Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving).
Masked assassin Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) sneaks aboard London and attempts to assassinate Valentine. Apprentice historian Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) intervenes before a fatal blow can be struck and, during the subsequent chase, he tumbles off a gangway and regains consciousness next to Hester in the wilderness.
The fugitives are forced to work together as they encounter famed pilot Anna Fang (Jihae) and a half-human, half-machine warrior called Shrike (Stephen Lang).
Mortal Engines is a solid opening chapter, which trades in gobsmacking set-pieces.
Hilmar is an appealingly spunky heroine and verbal rat-a-tat with Sheehan’s apprentice allows the darling buds of romance to appear.