It’s easy to look down on any semblance of a young adult phenom trying to generate high-octane fantasy through YA freak books. But, at the same time, there are times when the fantasy part weighs more, creating films of great scale and ambition without too much fear of ridicule.
And there are salvageable things, although there is still part of the public that wants to turn its back on such proposals. Sure, that’s what happens those who have more potential and are more enjoyable failas ‘Mortal Engines‘, a crazy proposal produced and written by Peter Jackson and his usual team. And now you have the chance to rescue her with her arrival on netflix.
the city devours you
Just because of the idea of the dystopian world that it poses, it already promises fun: civilization has collapsed, creating scarcity and need, and large cities have adapted and become large motorized facilitiesmoving from one place to another until they need resources, where they attack and devour other smaller cities.
Cities that devour cities already cool in itself (municipal Darwinism!), but in the middle we also have a social conflict with a component of revenge with a mysterious woman (Hera Hilmar) and an ambitious young man with a desire to climb the class (Robert Sheehan) who ends up in the middle. Together they will form an unlikely but formidable alliance that will turn the tide in the rolling city of London.
Jackson acquired the rights to adapt Philip Reeve’s novel that brings this all up, and wrote the screenplay with Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, with whom he has done most of his projects, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, he postponed the making of the film until he delegated newcomer Christian Rivers, who has collaborated with Jackson on countless projects in different ways -storyboards, special effects, special shooting units-.
‘Mortal Engines’: ambitious and estimable
A special taste is noted in the treatment of special effects -Rivers was nominated in this area for ‘King Kong’-, but do not neglect the emotional aspects that the script of the wonder trio manages to treat with care. In fact, the beginner is more effective in these areas than the master in recent works such as The Hobbit.
It’s fair to say the story is spotty, with more potential than solid ERA, but it makes up for it with a character unleashed, embracing crazy fantasy What is in the proposal -have I already said that motorized cities devour other cities?-. Its monumental failure, where the study claimed 175 million losses, practically makes it continue to fulfill its potential.
Which is a shame, because it’s one of those underrated little pieces of science fiction with more personality and vibrancy than your average blockbuster.