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Mortal Engines Review Thread - The best reviewed film opening on December 14 ... if you ignore Beale Street, Capernaum, Spider-Verse, and The Mule

berzeli

berzeli

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,384
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Rotten Tomatoes link

THR (Todd McCarthy):
while there's plenty to look at on the screen, there's little to excite the senses or stimulate the imagination. Whether there are to be three more sequels is up to the public.
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The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw)
There are some lively things about Mortal Engines, and the performances are game enough. Yet in all its effortful steampunkiness, Mortal Engines isn't a film which is particularly exciting or funny, and the idea of the "traction city" is a stylistic and visual design tic that you just have to take or leave.
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Polygon (Karen Han):
Mortal Engines may hit a few too many rote beats, but it stands apart from most of its contemporaries.
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IndieWire (David Ehrlich):
A derivative steampunk fantasy that feels like a cross between "Fury Road" and "Final Fantasy," "Mortal Engines" isn't good, but it sure is huge.
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Variety (Andrew Barker):
The movie devolves from promising to unwieldy, then baffling, then exhausting, then finally unintentionally hysterical.‐ Variety
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Little White Lies (Tom Huddleston):
Mortal Engines aims high and sometimes lands – the designers deserve immense praise for their witty, imaginative work ... But as a film, this is simply too unwieldy, too busy, too wildly disordered to ever be more than a fascinating curio.
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Screendaily (Sarah Ward):
although the craft is coupled with a scenario featuring ample initial intrigue, the New Zealand-shot film remains frustratingly generic. ... That said, Mortal Engines crucially takes the time to flesh out a self-contained story. Its narrative may remain inescapably familiar but, unlike many other wannabe franchise-starters, it never feels like mere sequel-bait.
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Den of Geek (Adam Shepherd):
Jackson and Rivers have brought the world of Mortal Engines to life in spectacular fashion, creating environments, locations and cities that bristle with life and make us want to learn everything about them. If only the same could be said about the characters who populate it.
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WaffleTaco

WaffleTaco

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,908
Better than Venom's ratings and we know how that turned out.

Don't count this out yet!
 
kswiston

kswiston

Member
Oct 24, 2017
3,693
Another quality film in the time honored tradition of using the name of a big director to sell a film by their long term cinematographer, visual effects supervisor, or second unit director.
 
RedShift

RedShift

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,063
Oh man.

Loved the books but the trailers gave me the impression the writers either didn't get some parts or chose to change them. One mentioned London being the biggest traction city on earth or something which is... very much not the case in the books.
 
fick

fick

Alt-Account
Banned
Nov 24, 2018
2,261
God damnit. I haven't been paying close attention to this movie, but I loved the concept/trailer. Sucks to hear it sucks.
 
Osahi

Osahi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,937
Reviews here in Belgium were actually more positive. Not raving, but most I read called it a fun, impressive if somewhat derivative movie...
 
Yautja_Warrior

Yautja_Warrior

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,724
United Kingdom
WaffleTaco said:
Better than Venom's ratings and we know how that turned out.

Don't count this out yet!
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Yep. Bad reviews don't gaurentee it will fail, a lot of people love Venom despite the poor critic reviews.

I think the movie looks visually great, so I'm gonna go see it but it's hard to say for sure which way this one will go.

Also, critic reviews don't really mean all that much, they seem to hate most films these days and I normally enjoy the hell out of movies they hate. Movies can still be enjoyable even if they aren't the best thing ever, again Venom is a great example of that.
 
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Jecht

Jecht

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,650
That first trailer they put out was terrible. I was hoping it wasn't indicative. Damn.
 
adamsappel

adamsappel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,503
This was always destined to be another His Dark Materials scenario. You have to make a film trilogy of this scope concurrently.
 
Cels

Cels

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,781
i saw the trailer somewhere, maybe before creed 2? and i immediately thought this has dumpster fire all over it
 
PersonAndStuff

PersonAndStuff

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,264
I actually just back from the premiere. I got in free, which has been known to color my opinion before, and I really enjoyed it. Film has got boat loads of quality art direction and some good sequences. Hugo Weaving sword fights a cool asian lady with a high fade and a knife in her shoe. Good, fun times. Though, especially near the end, you can really feel that it was a larger YA novel scrunched down.
 
metsallica

metsallica

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,736
Can we switch the distribution of this with Peter Jackson's actual new movie "They Shall Not Grow Old?" It deserves thousands of screens while this "thing" is perfect for a two-day Fathom event.
 
H2intensity

H2intensity

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
921
watched it yesterday...its awful. Well it has great art direction and gorgeous scene but its like watching those cinematic video games in youtube.
 
theBmZ

theBmZ

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
2,133
Was hoping this would be interesting, but anyone who thought this wouldn't be a bomb is fooling themselves. Of course I could be wrong. Don't think I am, but we'll see.
 
Barn

Barn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,137
Los Angeles
It's difficult to quantify, but this is one of those movies where I could see the bomb coming from miles away. Not to rag on fans or crew, but I'd have confidently bet on it being a flop from the first trailer.
 
Atraveller

Atraveller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,308
I've just came out of it a few hours ago. I think it was perfectly fine as a popcorn flick. I can find worse movies that were actively insulting to the audience.
 
Mandius

Mandius

Member
Oct 27, 2017
425
I can't believe that Fran Walsh, Philipa Boyens, and Peter Jackson have won oscars for their writing. It was rubbish.
 
El Bombastico

El Bombastico

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
36,055
Peter Jackson, I'm sorry but you need to take a break from these CGI spectacle films. Maybe go back to doing a couple low budget horror flicks like in your pre-LotR days...
 
BIGLukas

BIGLukas

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
1,322
USA
I actually thought this looked kind of interesting in a silly way but I'm not at all surprised by those reviews.
 
GS_Dan

GS_Dan

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,979
Loved the books when I was a kid, so these scores are legitimately disappointing. Might see it anyway.
 
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