Mortal Engines (Dec 2018, Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk)

Slydice

Didn't have this on my radar. Peter Jackson is involved as producer.
Also has some names I recognise in the cast like:

• Hugo Weaving (Matrix baddie)
• Stephen Lang (Avatar baddie).
• I haven't seen Love/Hate but Robert Sheehan (Darren?) looks to be one of the leads
• I don't recognise yer wan, Hera Hilmar, with the mask in the trailer but she looks to be the other lead

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Engines_(film)
Sounds cool:

Mobile cities battle each other over the world's few remaining resources.

Trailer:

pixelburp

I'm... not sure what I just watched. That's the silliest idea I think I've seen in a scifi concept with a budget. I think I love it, it's so daft.

Mad Max meets, I dunno, City of Ember?

Skerries

anyone think it looked like the Monty Python sketch?

conorhal

pixelburp wrote: »

I'm... not sure what I just watched. That's the silliest idea I think I've seen in a scifi concept with a budget. I think I love it, it's so daft.

Mad Max meets, I dunno, City of Ember?

I've always liked the 'steam-punk' genre, particularly for it's asthetic, which you rarely get to see on screen except hints of it in the work of Terry Gilliam or Guillermo del Toro.
I question it's commercial appeal to a mainstream audience in this digital age though , it's a pretty niche genre with it's obsession with Victoriana and clockwork asthetic, and thus pretty risky at this budget given how little audiences seem to give new, non franchise, properties a chance.
I hope it succeeds though.

constitutionus

first thing i thought of TBH was "howls moving castle"

peteeeed

pixelburp

It's like every 'urban development is bad' notion turned into a literal, rolling metaphor. It'll probably be worth watching for the production design alone, but that actual plot is just so ridiculous.

Sad Professor

Hard to believe Peter Jackson didn't direct this.

Tony EH

I'm not sure whether that looks good or rubbish.

Plus, the dialogue snippets...fcuking 'ell. :rolleyes:

NyOmnishambles

Tony EH wrote: »

I'm not sure whether that looks good or rubbish.

Plus, the dialogue snippets...fcuking 'ell. :rolleyes:

It looks awful

The original teaser trailer made it look like something worth seeing

ricero

Reckon this will flop hard

Wedwood

Reminds me of Time Bandits for some reason.

peteeeed

Wedwood wrote: »

Reminds me of Time Bandits for some reason.

if only . loved that film . this looks like it could do with terry gilliams humour

Sad Professor

Jackson used to have a pretty dark and twisted sense of humour which he seems to have completely lost.

Liking the trailer, Jackson is one of those directors who the studio system seems to have worn down and robbed him of all that made him such a unique voice but even the Hobbit, well the two I saw showed some of that spark was still there. I think that he gets very invested in a project and puts all of himself into but there's been so many cancelled projects of his at this stage that he may just be tired and it's a shame as the man has one of the best dark senses of humour out there. Braindead, Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, The Frighteners are all great adult horror comedies and the Lord of the Rings still stands as a truly monumental epic of single-mindedness that shows just what happens when a talented film maker is allowed to bring his vision to life.

pixelburp

Sad Professor wrote: »

Jackson used to have a pretty dark and twisted sense of humour which he seems to have completely lost.

Par for the course though, no? We all mature and change, directors probably being no different to the rest of us - especially those that started out making more gonzo style flicks. You could include the likes of Sam Raimi, Tim Burton perhaps (arguably Quentin Tarantino is going the opposite direction; starting out more restrained, becoming more grindhouse as he went), you can't really be the anarchist once the studios come calling, or your first child is born

I suspect what Darko said rings a little true as well, that Jackson's experience with The Hobbit broke his creative spirit a little.

pixelburp

Another trailer has popped up; still looks weird, with the 'teenage chosen one' trope out in full force:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuL5yXsOAIA

Slydice

Is..

is she a teenager?

pixelburp

Well the novels are YA so I just assumed she's meant to be in that nebulous "anywhere between 18 and 25" that the protagonists tend to be in that genre. The actor is 29 according to the internet, so who knows; the trailer did seem very 'trope'y.

Fysh

The stills and early teaser for this had me optimistic that it might be a deranged mix of Mad Max Fury Road and Howl's Moving Castle, but the more of the full trailers I see the more suggestion of Death By Generic YA Trope rears its ugly head.

I reckon I'll still go and see it, but I suspect it won't be as good as I hoped. Mind you, I wasn't expecting much out of Fury Road and that was one of the best films of the last decade...

Slydice

pixelburp wrote: »

Well the novels are YA so I just assumed she's meant to be in that nebulous "anywhere between 18 and 25" that the protagonists tend to be in that genre. The actor is 29 according to the internet, so who knows; the trailer did seem very 'trope'y.

They don't have a hope in getting me to believe she's less than 20.

JP Liz V1

Kinda looks a mix of Mad Max and Divergent

Roar

Nice little nod to the opening line of the LOTR trilogy with Weaving's "the world is changing" line

Nerdlingr

Christ, i'd forgotten i'd read some of these books until i saw the trailer!!!
Looks awful.

Fysh

I took a punt on this the other day , and that was a mistake.

This is a derivative, badly acted knock off of Mad Max and that Doctor Who episode where London was on the back of a giant space whale for some reason. The only significant bit of giant-motorised-cities-fighting-each-other action is in the opening five minutes and was used in the trailer. The rest of the film is death by a million YA papercuts and repeated attempts at ripping off other, better films. There's no humour in the thing and the acting is bloody woeful, made worse by some of the dialogue being spouted.

For the love of god, don't reward such crappy filmmaking as this by going to see it.

I looked up the Wikipedia article about the books after seeing the film and the author originally wanted to sell it as a straight SF book. Given the inherent ridiculousness of the premise, I'm not bloody surprised he couldn't sell it that way. I bet fewer films will be made than he wrote books, based on this lumpen turd of an outing...

silverharp

I listened to a scathing review of it from a huge Peter Jackson fan, said it was the worst Sifi film since 2000, worse than Jupiter Rising but he wasn't going to rewatch to confirm :pac: , devoid of any humour or logic and full of forgettable characters . I Think I will pass , oh and apparently lots of ripped off Star Wars ideas blatantly obvious in the movie

Mr E

I saw it last night and thought it was ... OK.

I thought the pacing was patchy and it was overstuffed with lore that you have to try and figure out yourself.

It was also overstuffed with characters who are mostly forgettable (apart from the main characters of Tom, Hester, Shrike, Valentine and Anna).

Valentine's daughter and the other guy she was with added nothing either.

The last half an hour was action packed and I left the cinema feeling good about the movie overall (but it was a bit like having a great dessert after an average meal).

In fairness to the movie, it did have a solid ending (in such that there are no loose threads for a sequel).
There are 3 other books and a few novellas, so it'll be interesting to see how this does in the box office.

It was definitely not worse than Jupiter Ascending.

Fysh

Jupiter Ascending had Eddie Redmayne chewing all the scenery as an entertaining and compelling villain, a script that didn't take itself particularly seriously, and some actual jokes in the script that got laughs.

Mortal Engines has Hugo Weaving mostly looking bored, some of the most wooden acting I've seen in years from whoever played Anna Fang, and a script that thinks the film has much more depth and emotional payoff than it actually has. There's some visual spectacle to the last half hour or so but it's over-egged and the film has, by then, blathered on far too much, so it just felt tedious to me - it's the first time I can remember seeing a villain smart enough to have a Plan B and instantly reacting with "Oh ya bastard, that means there's at least another 15 minutes of sh*teing on before I can go home", for example.

Arcsurvivor

I keep seeing the commercials for this movie. The screenwriter is a protege of Peter Jackson- Lord of the Rings director.

pixelburp

A premise this ludicrous needed to be treated with a little more levity than the actual dour slog I watched; as Fysh remarked, it did feel like an episode of Dr. Who, albeit without that sly wit & charisma. Not a irredeemably bad film per se, but incredibly rote filled with stodgy, stock characters speaking stodgy, stock dialogue. It was also a pretty 'insecure' film too: while some adaptations optimistically tease plots & sequels to (never) come, here it felt like everything was front-loaded 'til the script was bursting. I suspected many otherwise superfluous side characters were fleshed out more in the book, while the main character had not just one tragic backstory - but two! Meanwhile, the third act parachuted a whole new ensemble of characters that, again, I suspected were more important and prominent in the book(s).

Criticism aside though, I have to admit it left a good impression on me, if only because it was a blockbuster film with a truly original (if daft) premise and execution. Cinemas are swamped with cookie-cutter, formulaic blockbusters with little creative vision. That couldn't be said o Mortal Engines though; the FX were spectacular, with both the world and roving vehicles designed with obvious care and love. It's not often I've gone to the cinema to watch something new and unique - yet here we are. It's just a shame the script didn't share that sense of creativity.

I look at this, and something achingly unoriginal like Aquaman, and honestly I'd pick Mortal Engines each time.

Slydice

Gave it a watch. It was fine. The world and special effects were done well.

The story was probably it's biggest let-down. Way too much and not enough bonding with the characters.

There was probably the makings of 2 or 3 films there.

panevthe3rd

Saw it when it came out and thought it worked well as a Final Fantasy movie.

Alot of elements seem like they were lifted from Final Fantasy 8 in particular.

Of course Final Fantasy 8 could have taken things from the book in the first place.

Flaneur OBrien

I watched it tonight and I felt I watched about 5 movies at once.