Mortal Engines

The newest masterpiece by Peter Jackson, and while it might not top his crowning achievement of The Lord of the Rings, his movies are always, as we say over here in flemish, visually "af".

And so it is again with the sci-fi epos Mortal Engines, based on the book with the same name by Philip Reeve.

Earth has had it's continents shattered after a huge war, and cities have been wiped out.  Civilisation survives in small, often mobile, villages.  But amongst them are also the Predator Cities, like London.  Huge machines with thousands of inhabitants, these roam the lands looking for small communities to absorb and process.

Thaddeus Valentine, lead scientist of London, has other plans though.  He is secretly working on a forbidden weapon, called Medusa, to breach the great wall into the east and the lands beyond.  But he is assailed by a mysterious scarred girl, Hester Shaw, with whom's mother he had a romance.  Until he killed her for a piece of technology of ages gone by.

As London advances, Hesther and her new found ally Tom, try to gather all their forces to stop the city and Thaddeus, each for their own reasons, but with the same goal in mind.

Okay, so surely the end attack on London feels like "A New Hope" and it's Trench Run, including "doomsday cannon on a firing timer" and "sword fight inside the base" but still, it is a very well made, and gorgeous movie.  And of course, Hugo Weaving is once again fantastic in his role, bringing a lot of weight and presence to an otherwise relatively unknown cast.

Very good film, and very enjoyable!