Review: “Mortal Engines”, Magnificent CGI with Substance-Less Story
“Mortal Engines” is like our ultimate science-fiction movie that we are dying to see on the cinema. Based on a popular novel by Philip Reeve, the main idea of the story alone manages to send shivers to our nerds’ hearts. Finally, the movie is released yesterday 5 December 2018 on Indonesian cinema, a week earlier than its North American release. For those who haven’t read the novel yet, let us break it down for you a little bit. “Mortal Engines” is set on a dystopian future, when the earth and its civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event that forced humans to inhabit moving machines that are powered by an engine. The earth is divided into two parts, the north that is called Anti-Traction League and the south called Traction League. If you have watched Studio Ghibli’s “Howl’s Movin Castle”, then you must be reminded by it when you saw the machines in this film. Huge cities on earth move within this machine and preyed other traction cities in order to keep the machines alive. The strongest city on the north side of the earth happened to be London, which was led by an archeologist, Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving). One day, a mysterious woman named Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) tried to murder him but failed to do so.
This attempted murder sparked a question about his past with a fellow archeologist that turned out to be Hester Shaw’s mother. Historian Tom Natsworthy somehow got involved in this mess while trying to save the last civilization on earth. The viewers were taken on a journey through the perspective of Tom Natsworthy who unveiled Valentine’s dark past as well as the new alliance with Hester Shaw and Anna Fan (Jihae), a fugitive of London. As a sci-fi lover, we absolutely love the CGI in this movie. This is like a combination of Mad Max and Howl’s Moving Castle that includes rattling old machine and rusty looking people. Our problem lays in its character when we thought that this particular character would have a huge role in the movie, the character suddenly disappeared into thin air without a specific plot that leads into the disappearance. A tad bit disappointed, this movie might not be as spectacular as the novel, but “Mortal Engines” still got us entertained and there will be three more series if this one is a success. So, we guess the sequel got to be better right? *prays the doom of Eragon film will not happen to this franchise*
Documentation: Universal Pictures/Reviewer: Susanti Oktavia/Editor: Novita Widia
