Sunday, August 22, 2021

Mortal Engines (2018)

It is the 32nd Century and much of humanity survives in giant mobile cities that hunt the barrens of Europe in search of smaller cities to devour.  London has recently crossed the land bridge to the continent and has spotted a small Bavarian town.  The chase begins.  Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) is the prime mover of London though not the political head.  He seems a genial fellow though there are secrets behind him.  No sooner has the little Bavarian town been consumed by London than one of the refugees attacks Valentine!  This is Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) and she is out for vengeance.  Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) intervenes and soon finds himself chasing the would-be assassin.

Though entertaining, it is entirely too ludicrous to not laugh.  London is a mobile mountain that should sink into the earth rather than roll across it.  They find thousand year old technology that they manage to give a nice polish and it works again.  Aircraft appear to be based on Zepplins or anti-gravity.  In the final confrontation, the villain pushes his new weapon to its very limits, risking an overload.  Um, what's your hurry?  Fire again in a few hours.  Well, that wouldn't be as exciting or climactic.  However, I did enjoy that thousand year old Twinkies were still edible.

Just your run-of-the-mill young-adult fiction.  Meh.

No comments: