Mortal Engines is a beautiful, fun time to (re) discover steampunk

I’m in a coffee place and two middle aged guys are talking. “I wasn’t familiar with the plot. But, I saw the movie in IMAX and it was amazing. The special effects were incredibly detailed and its steampunk elements were things that you really need to see on the big screen”, one said to the other. I didn’t need to ask them what film they were talking about. I knew that it was Mortal Engines.

I was not familiar with the books, they’re a 4-part series by Phillip Reeve about a post-apocalyptic world where…..hey hey, eyes up here.I know that the whole ‘post apocalyptic’ tag line is over used. You’re expecting Jennifer Lawrence or some pasty faced vampire in the film just to lock down its middle school street cred. Mortal Engines is a different kind of end-of-the world tale, this is steampunk on the grandest scale that’s ever been displayed on the big screen.

From the opening moments Mortal Engines establishes what you might already know from the trailer. London is a massive city on wheels that consumes other smaller cities on wheels for their resources.  As we dig deeper we learn that there was a 60-second war that shifted the crust of the Earth which somehow mandated that our cities are built on iron wheels.

Don’t get bogged down in the details. Mortal Engines is a fun, high quality popcorn time at the movies. If you’ve read the books you’ll notice that most of the downbeat under currents aren’t mentioned and that’s ok. If the film had spent any time on the elements that were not big machines, majestic mountains or big machines it would’ve tripped upon its good intentions.

Mortal Engines rarely lets its foot off of the gas and that’s a great thing. The only time that the film stumbles is when viewers get a moment to actually question why this or that is happening. How can his daughter be so trusting? What happened to that other guy who was helping her? Stop, don’t ask any question, just enjoy the film and everything will be fine.

For us the biggest let down was the ending music. The soundtrack during the film is strong and very effective. When the film ends the soundtrack goes soft and all but requires the audience to exhale. It also leaves you feeling let down, which the complete opposite of what the film did.