Movies: Mortal Engines - Peter Jackson's latest

[beowulf]

Based on the book of the same name in which cities roam the earth and bigger groups gobble up smaller ones.

Click to read more...

 

[Cloned]

I dunno about this one. Depends on how strong the characters are.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

The Hobbit trilogy was so, so, SO bad that I have next to no interest in this.

 

[RandV]

Anyone familiar with the books?

I love the idea of Peter Jackson taking a non-LOTR series and making a block buster out of it, but this is one I've never heard of and while I'd give it a chance doesn't really draw me in at first glance. See how it goes but right now it makes me wish he picked another property, like I've always thought Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy would be a great fit for the big screen.

 

[The Beyonder]

I've never heard of Mortal Engines. That trailer ... London on wheels roaming a post-apocalyptic earth?

Hopefully the film has a believable explanation. It seems kind of ridiculous but I'll give it marks for creativity. It looks pretty steampunk with Mad Max feel, so that's a plus for me at least.

 

[beowulf]

The novel is the first of a series by Philip Reeves. The four novels are Mortal Engines, Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain. I just started the first one so can't comment yet on the content but if I remember I'll post something when I am done. And yes the novel is very much steampunk.

Spoiler

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world, ravaged by a "Sixty Minute War", which caused massive geological upheaval. To escape the earthquakes, volcanoes, and other instabilities, a Nomad leader called Nikola Quercus installed huge engines and wheels on London, and enabled it to dismantle (or eat) other cities for resources. The technology rapidly spread, and evolved into what is known as "Municipal Darwinism". Although the planet has since become stable, Municipal Darwinism has spread to most of the world except for Asia and parts of Africa. Much technological and scientific knowledge was lost during the war. Because scientific progress has almost completely halted, "Old Tech" is highly prized and recovered by scavengers and archaeologists. Europe, some of Asia, North Africa, Antarctica, and the Arctic are dominated by Traction Cities, whereas North America was so ravaged by the war that it is often identified as "the dead continent", and the rest of the world is the stronghold of the Anti-Traction League, which seeks to keep cities from moving and thus stop the intense consumption of the planet's remaining resources.

FYI this is another of the "young adult" dystopian future series like Hunger Games. Reeves originally had written it as an adult book supposedly but changed it after the publisher asked for a more teen friendly novel as it was rejected as an adult novel.

Also Jackson is producing and writing but it is his long-time collaborator Christian Rivers that is directing.

 

[Ceremony]

I've read the books lots of times, at the age when you're supposed to. I don't get the popularity of stuff like the Hunger Games and the various things which rip it off because I'm past the age range they're targeted at, but the books are good and I'm surprised they're eventually making films of these. I'm pretty sure the idea of a film (or films) has been floating around for a while, but obviously even the premise isn't exactly easily transferred to the screen and that's before you consider the other three books and all the stuff in them and all the locations they take place in.

As for it being believable, well, the (it's been a while so I forget all the specific terms) people who live on cities think people who live on the ground are stupid and dirty and don't understand how anyone could be opposed to their way of life and think it will last forever, because of course what else would you expect to happen in a world where every city sprouts wheels and goes around eating one another until there's only one left?

Also after actually watching the trailer it appears Hester has both her eyes which is wrong and I hate it already.

 

[beowulf]

Do you really believe all these dystopian series rip this of specifically? I mean I could say they all rip off The Giver by Lois Lowry which remains one of the, if not the best dystopian novel for a "young adult" audience along with the other three novels in the quartet.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

Mad Max -- Extreme

 

[Ceremony]

Do you really believe all these dystopian series rip this of specifically? I mean I could say they all rip off The Giver by Lois Lowry which remains one of the, if not the best dystopian novel for a "young adult" audience along with the other three novels in the quartet.

I'd never heard of The Giver, book(s) or film, so make of that what you will. I picked the Hunger Games because it's the highest profile of these sorts of films that have been popular over the last decade and every trailer I've seen for other teenaged dystopias has looked near enough identical.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

This looks atrocious

 

[Ceremony]

@beowulf have you finished the books yet?

 

[beowulf]

 

[NerdyMike]

That's a cool post for any mortal engines fan

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I've only seen the trailer, but the logic of it makes no sense.

"There's a scarcity of resources, so we spent so many resources to turn our cities into mobile fortresses, to fight other cities, hoping that the resources we spend doing to are going to be less than the amount we get from the other city we conquer...who obviously is dealing with the same limited resource problem, since they too spent far too much converting their city."

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

I've only seen the trailer, but the logic of it makes no sense.

"There's a scarcity of resources, so we spent so many resources to turn our cities into mobile fortresses, to fight other cities, hoping that the resources we spend doing to are going to be less than the amount we get from the other city we conquer...who obviously is dealing with the same limited resource problem, since they too spent far too much converting their city."

Maybe they worship the City Goddess who also moonlights as the Goddess of War and in order for the Goddess to bless you with great harvests and to open up hard-to-get-to mine reserves, you have to swallow up other cities as a form of tribute in order to please her. After all, the city is only a "mortal engine" and maybe there is an "immortal aspect"?

 

[beowulf]

I've only seen the trailer, but the logic of it makes no sense.

"There's a scarcity of resources, so we spent so many resources to turn our cities into mobile fortresses, to fight other cities, hoping that the resources we spend doing to are going to be less than the amount we get from the other city we conquer...who obviously is dealing with the same limited resource problem, since they too spent far too much converting their city."

Well maybe this will help it make more sense....quick idea of what the book is about

Spoiler

he book is set in a post-apocalyptic world, ravaged by a "Sixty Minute War", which caused massive geological upheaval. To escape the earthquakes, volcanoes, and other instabilities, a Nomad leader called Nikola Quercus (known as god Nicholas Quirke by the time of the book) installed huge engines and wheels on London, and enabled it to dismantle (or eat) other cities for resources. The technology rapidly spread, and evolved into what is known as "Municipal Darwinism". Although the planet has since become stable, Municipal Darwinism has spread to most of the world except for Asia and parts of Africa. Much technological and scientific knowledge was lost during the war. Because scientific progress has almost completely halted, "Old Tech" is highly prized and recovered by scavengers and archaeologists. Europe, some of Asia, North Africa, Antarctica, and the Arctic are dominated by Traction Cities, whereas North America was so ravaged by the war that it is often identified as "the dead continent", and the rest of the world is the stronghold of the Anti-Traction League, which seeks to keep cities from moving and thus stop the intense consumption of the planet's remaining resources.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Movie is bombing hard at box office

Less then 3M on Friday and forecast to have a dismal 7-8M opening weekend

 

[Trap Jesus]

The concept is absurd and stupid, but I kind of like it. The movie doesn't look good from the trailers or reviews but I still may be tempted to see it.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Typical young adult novel fodder.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

‘Mortal Engines’ to Lose More Than $100 Million at Box Office

Wow this is a box office disaster

100-125M loss

 

[Preds Partisan]

Predictable to everyone except the studio execs who approved this.

 

[hockey diva]

PJ's documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old" will do better than this.

 

[beowulf]

Sadly the books are not well known in North America and as the article mentions, it is not an easy plot to explain. I haven't see it yet and might tonight since it's cheapy Tuesday ticket night. It has yet to open in China so maybe it might make some money there but $42M globally so far is underwhelming for sure.

 

[NyQuil]

Predictable to everyone except the studio execs who approved this.

I just see a CGI mess.

Why is every big budget movie a CGI mess?

BTW, I would think moving an entire city around would take a lot of resources.

Kind of like how the Mad Max guys seem to use a lot of gas.