Good Morning Apocalypse Warriors,

Today’s post is all about a post-apocalyptic movie released late last year called Mortal Engines.

So as you may know, I love anything chilling and thrilling. I mean, how much more chilling can you get than the apocalypse? It’s such a thrilling concept that has been executed in so many creative, different ways, and I always enjoy diving in.

When my coworker told me about this movie, I had to see it ASAP! I’ll admit, I originally thought that Rachel McAdams was the main character on the cover, which attributed to my desperate need to see this movie (I love, love LOVE Rachel McAdams!). That’s not true though. There’s no Rachel McAdams in here.

All right, so let’s get into the nitty gritty!

The movie starts out with a young girl looking for something in the distance with her binoculars. Then she spots it. Something is coming, a huge massive town on wheels! She runs back to her town, where people start freaking out.

Suddenly, the walls and buildings of her town fold in on themselves. The buildings start to drive away from the oncoming town on wheels, but the girl’s part of town isn’t so lucky.

She and her townspeople are captured, taken by the oncoming town called London, where they are told that they will be given jobs and a place to sleep, but obviously the girl seems to know something about this place.

Who is this young girl? What does she know about this strange town? Will she survive this strange new environment?

First things first, I just want to say how enthralled I was at the beginning of this movie. It was obviously post-apocalyptic and had a very unique concept. Towns on wheels, crazy right? I thought so too, but it actually works pretty well and was entertaining.

I like that the main character Hester wasn’t a Pollyanna and gave off more of a villain vibe.

She seems to think for herself and questions any kind of authority. I really like that, and she had a good reason for being that way as well.

I also felt like there was a decent amount of world building and that the concept in general was easy to understand.

The adventure aspect of this movie was on point, and I was always rooting for the underdog.

That being said, there were several things that kind of irked me, mainly things that I don’t believe were necessary.

The biggest flaw for me was the romance. Now before all you romance-lovers boo me off the stage, hear me out. Hester’s interaction with the love interest in this story (Tom) is through his irksome need to do the right thing (*cough cough Pollyanna*).

After that, they are kind of thrust together by fate on an adventure. She seems to tolerate him through the first half, but then they develop a friendship.

That I could understand, but by the end of the movie another character implies that she loves him, and Hester doesn’t say anything back! I just couldn’t get behind it. There were no actual implications from Hester that she really felt that deeply about Tom along the way in my opinion, and if I’m being honest, Tom’s personality was too vanilla for me.

There are other clichés, mainly characters fitting a part that’s been seen time and time again, but I don’t want to give anything important away, so I’ll just keep it at that.

Lastly, cringe-worthy villain monologues. Can we just stop with this all together or make them more believable?

Ultimately, I really enjoyed this movie. It had plenty of thrills along the way to keep you interested, and the concept was solid. However, I think the movie would’ve been better if they would’ve thrown out the romance element and stuck with the main idea instead. Still worth a watch!

Have you seen this movie? What did you think of it? Feel free to comment and share your opinion, and happy watching everybody!