Hera Hilmer in The Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines Trailer #1 (2018) *London Calling*

If nothing else, The Mortal Engines finally gives London its revenge for being the most oft-destroyed city in cinema history.  London literally eats a city in the trailer for The Mortal Engines, written by Peter Jackson and directed by Christian Rivers.  There’s not much to the teaser to judge the film (it is a year away) on aside from visuals that borrow heavily from Mad Max, but I’m in to see London get some cinematic revenge.  The Mortal Engines will open December 14, 2018.


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. The film is based on Philip Reeve’s fantasy novels.

Hera Hilmer in The Mortal Engines

 

12 thoughts on “Mortal Engines Trailer #1 (2018) *London Calling*”

  1. Looks better than Mad Max to me. I can’t wait! This is is what a teaser should be. If TLJ massively underperforms, and I would be willing to bet it will, how long will it be before critics, and hype, and the entire Hollywood machine, starts to crumble? I could be wrong, but it seems to me that TLJ was generally well liked. I think that a week of nonstop negativity in the press, inspired by a small minority of disgruntled people, is proboby going to keep a lot of folks the hell away moving forward. But the reason for the coming plummet is immaterial, the point is that the movie was built up into something that folks are now thinking it most assuredly is not.


    When did every big film need to become the second coming? Why not just trust audiences to go to movies that look kinda cool? I’m sold on Mortal Engines, and all I know is that Jackson is involved, and that the hinted-at premise seems awesome. Hype is killing film.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It isn’t a small minority. People are sharply divided on the film. In our poll “1/10” and “10/10” are the top two responses. On RT the critics are at 92% the audience I believe at 53%. It’s not a disastrous film, and I just listened to Williams’ masterful score tonight for which he should win an Oscar but won’t, and I don’t HATE it. The problem is the fanbase, which was so united and positive didn’t get far enough along with Disney before they got freaked again and now there’s friction where before we had harmony. If Solo turns out to be amazing, that would help so much, but Abrams doing IX doesn’t give me a lot of hope. He’s not a closer. He doesn’t do sequels….well. Plus, he was onboard for all Johnson’s choices. An underperforming TLJ AND a Solo bomb are going to have to make Lucasfilm re-evaluate some things. Because if I feel a little over SW and sad , then the casual people who thought it was crap have walked away.


      Liked by 1 person

      1. But the RT audience score is not the most systematic way in the world of gauging opinions. The diehard fans who are really angered and distraught are few in number compared to the general population, but those are the people who would have been compelled to speak up on the RT site. Especially after the glowing reviews, combined with sky-high expectations, created a perfect storm for an unprecedented feeling of disappointment.

        Didn’t the movie get an “A” cinemascore? Also everyone I’ve spoken to has either loved it, or at the very least been captivated. Not a single nerd among them, mind you (I am my own little Dagobah oasis in a sea of people who don’t understand) but I have NEVER sensed this kind of enjoyment of a SW movie in my adult life, and that’s from the days of TPM on. The audience loved it on opening night. You can sense the mood in a theater. Phantom Menace was like being part of a high school class that was forced to watch a geology documentary. People were laughing and cheering during TLJ, and there was universal and enthusiastic applause at the end. NOTHING I am saying proves anything about how TLJ is being received across this globe of ours, I just get the sense that the humor, the action, and the plot twists are being enjoyed by most people, that TLJ qualifies as a really fun popcorn movie, if you don’t have too much invested in SW, if you’re just looking for a good time.


        Personally, I think it has the best visuals and action of any SW film ever made, and the most impressive scope. The story is a disaster, though it has some fantastic individual scenes. I hate the way Luke goes out. I hate the style of the humor. That is my final word. But I think it’s the negative press that is influencing most people, not any concerns I might have as a SW fan. I have spent WAY more time thinking about this galaxy than most.

        This movie will not even do R1 business. It’s going to be considered a dud when all is said and done. And Solo cost twice its original production budget after the reshoots, and Ron Howard has utterly lost it as a director in recent years. Bomb. Bringing JJ back was great when we thought TLJ was going to be a masterpiece, and all JJ had to do was land the ship, close out the plot threads. Now, JJ has way too much to repair, way too much on his shoulders.


        But despite how the diehards might feel, I really think most people liked The Last Jedi. I don’t feel as much negativity as you, I enjoyed it as a roller coaster ride once I realized it wasn’t actually SW. Obviously I would have preferred SW. That’s what I was expecting, that’s what I paid to see. But I think it’s the infernal media turning this movie into an outright dud. I think things are getting out of hand. Disney made a huge mistake not correctly gauging the climate…they really did make this SW movie for the general population and NOT for the fans. Disney spent the whole movie demolishing everything the fans were holding onto, so that the franchise could be moved forward, into a new generation, a new, wider audience. But if you disrespect the fans, there will be hell to pay as long as an internet exists.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. The feedback I’m getting, that I’m talking about, is all offline. And I’m kind of clinging to it. If the Last Jedi is as weird as I think it is, AND casual moviegoers, in general, dislike it as much as the diehard fans do, I have nothing to hold onto to right now, and it’s a sure bet that the end of SW starts here, because the next two films needed this one to carry them, badly. This situation is cruel…I did not think I would ever be getting more Star Wars before Disney bought Lucasfilm, and I was content with that. If this goes off the rails…

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I’m hearing it in messages all over the country from my friends and family. Most people on the site seem apathetic and deflated. Theres not a lot of comments or debate. That isnt a good sign either. Even anger would be better. My poll is by no means scientific but its stunning in how widely ranging the opinions are.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. There is a disconnect between people who takes polls on the internet and those who do not. I am not denigrating the poll takers, as I am among that sort of person, I am only saying that if you are interested enough to visit the site and take the poll, you probobly care enough to have a strong opinion. I am surrounded by a lot of people who do not understand SW. The ones in the know are only in the know because if you want to have a relationship with me, you have to make an effort to get with the program. So my sample is no doubt skewed in one direction. We will see how things pan out, but even if only the diehard fans hate the film, that alone has the power to suck the lifeblood out of this.


        Disney screwed up by not using Lucas’s outline. I’m sure of it. I have gathered that his outline began with Luke in exile, where he had been since ROTJ. This is what I predicted for TFA, back in the day, if you remember. It would have made more sense, there would have been direct continuity with the OT, instead of with momentous events we never saw, that happened between triogies. Lucas as the idea man, with someone else (Arndt) writing and someone else directing would have taken us back to OT perfection. And no First Order, but some new threat we could never have predicted. Instead Disney went forward with no plan, and it worked for one episode and one spinoff, but now it is obvious there are no George Lucases here.

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