Never have we thought any film with Peter Jackson's name slapped on it could be one of the most one-note, tiring and worn out motion pictures ever displayed on silver screens! As a sigh of relief, Mortal Engines wasn't directed by the man who gifted us The Lord of the Rings cinematic trilogy. Instead, he was just the producer and the marketing team believed by selling this high-budgeted boo-boo under the pretext of 'A Peter Jackson film' since it isn't technically wrong, it would be a good guarantee for the theater seats to be filled. Honestly, we can't blame them, because how else would you promote a Greek tragedy as such?
Admittedly, the idea was somewhat different. Giant nomad cities in a post-apocalyptic colonialism, what's not to love about this right? But being different doesn't mean it will work. Only when looking at the notion's actualization, you'd realize how sour it is to the eyes! It's dreary to the core! You can't distinguish A from B as everything looked the same. How long would you be willing to stare at garbage cans, metal scraps, machines, parts of machines and waste networks? Not only the story's about machines, the plot itself was mechanical with zero emotional heft! You wouldn't be able to find one character to root for here!
Characters, especially the side ones were absolutely pointless. We do not know why they were there, but they were there. Lead male protagonist Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) will put your annoyance tolerance to test. Whenever and wherever possible, every single character's ready with an exposition to feed you. In this bunch, Jihae as Anna Fang at least gave a likeable performance.
The one persona that will instill fear in you is Shrike the Resurrected (Stephen Lang). He was truly intimidating for his appearance but most importantly, his invulnerability. You know he can derail your plans just by showing up! Visual effects team did a terrific job on his looks. Speaking of visual effects, at least this technical department knew what they were doing. Caterpillar-like underground crawler and Windflower's flight were examples of highlights.
Editor Jonno Woodford-Robinson definitely tried, you could say. Despite weird cuts here and there in the beginning, Hester's (Hera Hilmar) transformation from kid to adult was swift and surprising! Most of the transitions weren't bad too. Rustwater market bidding event was a good scene that deserves a mention. Although the intention of using 2010s pop culture references like Minions and internet memes as 'ancient' collectibles is understandable, the fruition just came off as inaptly bad - well, that's what you get for including real life stuffs into fictional worlds.