Underplayed Gems

Mortal Engines (2018)

Mortal Engines poster
Directed by
Christian Rivers
Genre
adventure film, steampunk, speculative fiction film, post-apocalyptic film, dystopian film
Country
New Zealand, United States
Runtime
2h 08m
Rated
PG-13
Rating
6.2 of 10 from 5,221 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

In a post-apocalyptic world, giant mobile cities chase and consume smaller towns for resources. A young woman seeks revenge against a powerful leader from her past while uncovering a dangerous secret.

epicvisually-strikingadventurousfast-paceddystopiansteampunkbleakaction-packed

What happens

Mortal Engines is a 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk film, based on Philip Reeve's 2001 novel. Directed by Christian Rivers and written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, it stars Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, and Stephen Lang. An American–New Zealand co-production, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where entire cities have been mounted on wheels and motorised, and hunt smaller cities. Jackson purchased the rights to the book in 2009, but the film languished for several years before being officially announced in 2016. Jackson picked Rivers, who won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Jackson's King Kong, to make his feature-length directorial debut with the project, and also brought on several members of his production teams from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. Filming took place from April to July 2017 in New Zealand. Mortal Engines had its world premiere on November 27, 2018, in London, was theatrically released in New Zealand on December 6, 2018, and in the United States on December 14, 2018. The film received mixed reviews from critics and is one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, grossing $84 million against a production budget of $100–150 million and losing Universal an estimated $175 million. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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