Film Review - Mortal Engines (12A)

We have to stop London before it destroys us.

Certain books demand to be adapted for the screen. They have a cinematic quality that just springs off the page. Advances in movie-making technology happened precisely so these crazy stories could be translated into visual form. Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is a prime example. The first instalment in a dystopian quartet, it has both monumental scale and outrageous imagination, and it bristles with challenging ideas. This film adaptation, crafted by the writers and producers of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, strives mightily to capture the brilliance of the novel - but falls short. There's a simple reason why, and I'll get to that.

Mortal Engines is set after a global apocalypse in the 'Age of Traction'; cities like London are now gargantuan vehicles, which rove the ravaged landscape seeking to assimilate or 'eat' smaller wheeled habitations. It's a process grandly referred to as Municipal Darwinism. Pitted against the travelling cities are Anti-Tractionists, from old-time stationary cities. Most pre-war tech has been destroyed (this is one vast steampunk world), but any that can be salvaged provides its owners with a deadly advantage in the ongoing conflicts. Key to the story in this weird future are a scheming London guild-master called Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving), an earnest young historian name of Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) and Hester Shaw, a single-minded young woman with a score to settle, played by Hera Hilmar. Their paths cross in the opening act, setting events in motion that lead to an epic confrontation.

That's one marvellous story to be told, and much of what impressed about the Tolkien cinematic trilogies is present here as well. Peter Jackson's Wingnut production company have done a spectacular job in realising the story visually; an opening sequence of the motorised London chasing down a small habitation simultaneously dazzles and compels. The sets are all constructed magnificently and dressed with fascinating attention to detail, those endlessly varied London-scapes being a highlight. There are eye-poppingly surreal steampunk visions throughout, along with several pulse-racing scenes of pursuit and escape. Visually there's as much world-building going on here as there was in Middle Earth, and director Christian Rivers tells the story with all the flair he's absorbed as a Jackson alumnus.

It all attempts to stay character-centric too, so that Hester - her face partially masked with a dark-red scarf as she angles to enter London - becomes one of the abiding images among the frantic opening action. Icelandic actress Hilmar is terrific in the role, gradually allowing humanity to thaw her character's icy facade. Sheehan serves as an endearing city-boy counterpart to her rugged survivalist, while Weaving gives pure charismatic bad-guy. Not that we ever get to remotely understand what is driving his nefarious actions, but that's part of what ultimately lets the film down...

Put simply, Mortal Engines gives you the sense that a six-hour movie has been compressed into two. This is a story replete with mesmerising science-fiction vistas and possessed of even greater numbers of intriguing ideas. It's crammed with characters too, potentially rich ones with fascinating back-stories, all of which deserve (or even demand) attention. Problem is, there's simply not enough time in which to do it all justice. Locations and events and dramatic twists all tumble together into what becomes a big noisy mess - wonderful-looking but ultimately incoherent, with a host of key questions unanswered. Characters lose out too, some virtually disappearing from the narrative, making me wonder whether a much longer edit was chopped down on insistence of the studio. Whatever the case, only Hester and Tom's relationship survives over the running-time, providing all the film's genuinely moving moments.

Ultimately this is a case of great source material, great talent, wrong format. In the same way that George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga could only have worked on TV (as the incomparable Game of Thrones), so Peter Jackson and co really needed to approach this, if at all, as a small-screen mini-series. They know how to do the visual scope and then some, but you can't cramp a story of this magnitude. Reeve's novel needed room to stretch out and breathe. Here's hoping audience members will feel inspired to give the Mortal Engines cycle a read.  It deserves their time.

Gut Reaction: Awe and enjoyment, gradually fading into that 'what might have been' sense of frustration. But Hester still brought tears to my eyes at one point late on.

Where Are the Women?: Hera Hilmar really shines (see my Gut Reaction). Singer Jihae also has room to impress as resistance leader Anna Fang. Everyone else needed more screen time to make an impact!

Ed's Verdict: 6/10. If The Nutcracker and the Four Realms had beauty without substance, this has beauty and too much damn substance to fit in one short film. There's so much to love, which makes it all the more of a shame.