Film Review: Mortal Engines

"Sixty Minutes Is All It Took To Bring Humanity To The Very Brink Of Extinction. Mankind Mobilized, A New Age Arose..."

Executively produced and partially written by the mastermind of fantasy cinema, Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings), Mortal Engines, the debut big screen release from long-time Jackson collaborator, Christian Rivers, acts as a live-action adaptation of the 2001 book of the same name from the series of novels, The Mortal Engines Quartet, from English author Philip Reeve. With Jackson purchasing the rights to Reeve's award winning novels all the way back in 2009, the nine year production process finally pays dividends this week, offering the chance for audiences both privy to the novels and those completely unaware of Reeve's written world to breathe in the supposed beginning of yet another groundbreaking science fiction franchise, and with the added incentive of Jackson's central involvement in the project something to particularly savour after his successes in the decade plus Middle Earth based filmography, what seriously could go wrong? Shockingly, pretty much everything, with Rivers' debut unfortunately an overly messy, unnecessary complicated and spectacularly dull adventure spectacle which substitutes basic and effective storytelling for a plethora of digital effects within a movie which once again proves how difficult it can be to transfer particular stories from paper onto the big screen. 

Suffering from the infamous Dune complex, which in other news is set to be once again revisited by the second best director working at the moment, Denis Villeneuve, very. very soon, Mortal Engines opens by describing a seemingly post-apocalyptic futureworld in which societies are now based upon huge, mechanical mobile machines, and even when the reasoning for such a dramatic shift isn't really explained to an effective extent to fully latch on aboard with straight away, such an opening is only the start of the varying issues at the heart of a movie which dreams big but ultimately falls into a two hours plus cinematic nightmare. With a central storyline which does manage to feel like a blended hybrid between the works of Frank Herbert, Tolkien and Star Wars, Rivers attempts to bring the Mad Max sensibility of the central landscape at the heart of the novels from paper to screen doesn't work whatsoever, with an over-reliance on CGI rather distracting and painfully bland to view upon the big screen, a particularly strange weakness when the technology has worked so well on previous ventures of a similar nature. With the always reliable Hugo Weaving (Lord of the Rings) well and truly chewing the scenery in the eyebrow raising central antagonist role, the film's best element is undoubtedly Hera Hilmar (The Fifth Estate) as the film's primary hero, a scarred, vengeful wasteland dweller who is unfortunately completely let down by her Han Solo rip-off of a love interest as played by Robert Sheehan (Mute) who seems to have fallen off the set of Gods of Egypt thanks to some truly awful, cringe-laden acting abilities which threatens to derail the movie as soon as he appears on screen. With a final act so obviously yet another contemporary take on the attack on the Death Star, one particular narrative twist did indeed make me bark out loud in laughter due to its' sheer absurdity, and with another three books potentially in place to be developed, the opening chapter of Jackson's latest adventure franchise begins in completely the wrong gear.  

Overall Score: 3/10

Film Review: Don't Breathe

"You Would Be Surprised What A Man Is Capable Of Once He Realises There Is No God..."

Back in 2013, Fede Alvarez's "re-imagining" of Sam Raimi's classic 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead could only be regarded as bonkers, sheer bonkers. In attempting to match the sheer madness of the original cult masterpiece, Evil Dead featured perhaps the most lavish amount of on-screen blood I think I remember seeing since Peter Jackson's Braindead back in the 90's. It was crazy but ultimately good fun, and on his latest project, Don't Breathe, the twisted mind of Alvarez has once again managed to create a real winner, one which relies on the dramatic tendencies of sheer, white-knuckle tension amidst the fundamental warped nature of a mind as expansive as Alvarez's, resulting in some radical plot twists, thrilling set pieces and a conclusion so ingrained in the classic nature of the genre it only emphasises Alvarez's love of full-blooded horror. Don't Breathe isn't The Witch but it is definitely the most enjoyable sub-par exploitation movie you might see this year.

Although the set-up isn't one of extreme originality, Don't Breathe focuses on the attempt of three young thieves to break into the home of and steal from a blind army veteran who after losing his only daughter in a car accident is compensated by the perpetrator's wealthy family. With Evil Dead's Jane Levy in the film's lead role alongside Dylan Minnette (Goosebumps) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows), Don't Breathe is a full-on fillip of tension and scares, resorting to violence quite heavily throughout in a Green Room-esque fashion, and featuring one scene of extremely heavy sub-par sexual violence during the final act it's amazing the film only contracted a 15 rating from the BBFC. Although the film does include twists and turns throughout its' winding narrative, the conclusion does suffer from a sense of obviousness, one that can be recognised from foregone horrors in the past, yet its' 90 minute run-time feels as if Don't Breathe says what it needs to say and clocks out just in time for the audience to cool down. Alvarez's latest is a jolt of good fun, featuring the best use of night vision camera work since last year's Sicario. Check it out. 

Overall Score: 7/10