Director Christian Rivers
Starring Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving
Rated M
Score 3.5/6

A mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw, emerges as the only one who can stop a giant, predator city on wheels devouring everything in its path. Feral, and fiercely driven by the memory of her mother, Hester joins forces with Tom Natsworthy, an outcast from London, along with Anna Fang, a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head.

Mortal Engines was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on March 20.

For those of you who might not know Mortal Engines was adapted from the first of four novels (Mortal Engines Quartet) written by Philip Reeve first published in 2001. Now it should be noted that I have not read any of the books though I am lead to believe that there is some difference between the book and the movie and naturally that is going to cause some kind of trouble with fans of the books.

Now the reason why I decided to review this one even though I missed it at the friendly neighborhood cinema was the involvement of Peter Jackson and WETA workshop. It is very clear that this the type of movie that needs to be watched on the biggest screen possible. I enjoyed what the filmmakers’ vision for the Museum of London (the behind the scenes stuff about the London Museum and St Paul’s Cathedral that was on the Blu-Ray was very interesting), I was amused by the fact the Minions where an exhibit at the museum also some of the ancient history of the world did give me a bit of a chuckle. As somebody who was not that familiar with the books, I thought that the concept of cities in the sky was a cool ‘sci-fi’ concept.

Now Hugo Weaving was a great choice as the villain of the movie Thaddeus Valentine, I believe that Weaving is at the top of the list of Australian actors you want for your villain in a movie, right before Ben Mendelsohn. This was the first time I’ve seen South Korean actress Jihae Kim in a role I thought that as Anna Fang she had a commanding on screen presence.
As for Hera Hilmar and Robert Sheehan as Hester and Tom? Well considering that this is the first movie I have seen either of them in I can only assume that they have probably given better performances elsewhere because a lot of their onscreen time together seemed to be emotionally flat, though that being said one of their better scenes involved Shrike towards to the end of the movie.