Mortal Engines Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs

Ups...

3. The Stunning Visual Effects

It's tough to deny that this is an incredibly well-made film, and surely the most impressively mounted bad film of the year.

Despite its fairly modest $100 million budget, practically every frame of CGI has a crispness to it you'd expect from a top-tier $200+ million blockbuster, likely the result of the VFX being handled by Jackson's own effects house Weta Digital.

It's worth reiterating that watching this movie on a dumpy laptop screen won't really do the visuals justice, and as lame as the script might be, it is at least a richly appealing experience from a visual perspective.

The detail of the post-apocalyptic landscapes, the traction cities and the sky-based combat in the third act is all intensely remarkable and clearly deserving of a far better movie to hang itself on.