"What is that?" "That, is London!"
Teaser Review 005 & Movie Preview 011
Mortal Engines
Written by Lord of the Rings' Peter Jackson
Chance of Success =
70% with Peter Jackson's name attach to it and the intriguing novel premise.
70% with Peter Jackson's name attach to it and the intriguing novel premise.
“A terrible scar ran down her face from forehead to jaw, making it look like a portrait that had been furiously crossed out. Her mouth was wrenched sideways in a permanent sneer, her nose was a smashed stump, and her single eye stared at him out of the wreckage.”
a bombastic premise of a world torn asunder and cities literally standing their ground:
+ Highlights +
An imaginative premise that give literal physical properties to the survival instincts of the human race as they are forced to fight one another to live in the post apocalyptic world as the society in the cities begin to regress and turn against each other with the protagonists trying to change it for the better.
? Main contention ?
The idea of them having social class again with what was lost because of the war are now being highly prized by the scavengers is an intriguing approach in and of itself, with St. Paul's Cathedral atop of London's moving city indicating how they would view religion now after the 'apocalypse'.
- Lowlights -
You need to have the suspension of disbelief of having the technology that is capable to pull out the major cities off of their foundation and moving on their own akin to Howl's Moving Castle but since every movie nowadays have already push the envelope and the audiences embrace the increasingly outlandish concepts, they will accept this as well.
Teaser Effectiveness =
80% for teasing the central conflict of the flick. City eating another city? Neat!
a case for the one hell of a introduction:
+ Highlights +
It's an attention grabber for sure as we see a large structure with wheels and engine being chased by a larger version of it, being harpooned and swallowed whole into its belly ... there's no better introduction into the series for sure.
I was totally swept away with the name attached to the movie that I right away assumed was directing it but instead Peter Jackson is just producing the project with Christian Rivers taking the helm as his directorial debut. Even though he might not achieve the success of his predecessor, he have experience behind the cameras and with the helping hands of the Lord of the Rings director, he may be able to succeed just yet.
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The Computer Generated cities are still in early stages (although it looks solid as it is now) which is understandable since the premiere date is still just a year away and the visual effects team(s) will still be worked on post-production behind the scenes. How the rest of the world would look still remains to be seen ... and I am interested to see them. How about you guys?
- Lowlights -
Regarding the main protagonist, Hester Shaw's appearance, there is a major liberty taken regarding how she looks, particularly the absence of her signature scar that is supposed to run across her face from forehead to jaw.
[Rambling starts!] I have not read the book yet so I do not know the chronology of the events whether she get the scar right from the get go or maybe in the middle of storyline but I can surmise it's a valid backlash and if the scar play a big part on how she react to the world around her and definitely how she is being viewed and perceived by those around her. If it is such a big part of her personality, why is it absent at all? How can the filmmaker justify it? Just like how Game of Thrones scaled back on how Tyrion Lannister look in the show compared to how he is described on the pages, they chose to not disfigure his face (it was lopsided before) while the scar across his face is tone down just enough to look bearable (instead of gory). I understand the choice is to make him more humane and thus relatable to the audiences ... is that the same approach they have for Shaw? Do they think the moviegoers could not stomach a lead with facial scar and did they decided to sacrifice that vital aspect of her life just to appease the executives that fear the earnings would suffer if they kept true to the book? All this rambling is mute if she will have that scar somehow later in the film but I fear that won't be the case this time around. Since it could be a family film (with PG-13 rating), they probably do not want to upset the more delicate minded people out there, thinking that everyone on this world looks perfect without blemish or scar. Have you been outside? Have you seen other people? [ends!]
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- Synopsis -
Thousands of years after civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, humankind has adapted and a new way of living has evolved. Gigantic moving cities now roam the Earth, ruthlessly preying upon smaller traction towns. Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan)—who hails from a Lower Tier of the great traction city of London—finds himself fighting for his own survival after he encounters the dangerous fugitive Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar). Two opposites, whose paths should never have crossed, forge an unlikely alliance that is destined to change the course of the future.
Cast
Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Leila George, Ronan Raftery, Colin Salmon, Patrick Malahide, Regé-Jean Page, Stephen Lang and Hugo Weaving ...
- IMDb - official - wiki (book) - wiki (film) -
source: Collider, Hester Shaw's scar
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