Mortal Engines Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs

Downs...

7. The Generic Plot & Characters

Through and through, this movie is loaded with characters and plot elements you've seen in literally dozens of previous blockbuster movies, from the classics like Star Wars to more cynical recent attempts to reignite the fires of the young adult genre (looking at you, The Darkest Minds).

The audience is introduced to countless characters and names for things likely to go in one ear and out the other, because the film so transparently wears its influences on its sleeve but does nothing particularly new or inventive with them.

There's the Chosen One character with parental issues and a secret, the moustache-twirling Donald Trump surrogate trying to apparently save the world and a few cool "exotic" heroes who join the movie later on, to name just some of the archetypes.

Overall it feels too much and not enough at the same time: there are numerous peripheral characters who could easily be cut from the movie entirely - especially the villainous Thaddeus Valentine's (Hugo Weaving) daughter Katherine (Leila George) - not to mention an excess of melodramatic subplots which just bloat the whole thing beyond its breaking point.