Mortal Engines

Thanks to the time that we had off for the Christmas break, my husband, my daughter, and I were able to fly home to Cincinnati to see our families for the holidays. It was a lot of fun. One of the things that I wanted to make sure we did while we were there was see Mortal Engines. 

If you aren't aware, the movie is based on the book series, starting with Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve. I had heard of the series before thanks to its appeal to young adults but I hadn't read it yet. So when I saw the trailer for the movie, I really wanted to watch it!

I'll try not to reveal too much in case you're interested in either reading the book or seeing the movie...but I wanted to tell you a little bit about both and compare the two.

The premise of Mortal Engines is that it takes place in the future after humanity has basically wiped out much of civilization thanks to the "Sixty Minute War." Technology was then created to turn cities into enormous vehicles with wheels and engines. This spreads to much of the globe and they participate in "Municipal Darwinism" where only the biggest and fastest cities can survive. The world is divided into two factions--the Traction Cities that roam the earth on wheels and the Anti-Traction League who fight to live in grounded cities and defeat the huge machines that consume vast amounts of resources to keep moving.

CHARACTERS: Just a note about important characters so you know who I'm talking about.

Tom Natsworthy is a third-class apprentice for the Guild of Historians. He is smart but doesn't have a lot of experience outside of being a historian. He loves watching London swallow other cities whole so that he can discover new artifacts. Thaddeus Valentine is Tom's hero. He is London's most famous archaeologist and Head Historian. He is the father of Katherine who at the beginning of the story is Tom's biggest crush. She is beautiful and very devoted to her father. Hester Shaw, a young physically disfigured girl, then arrives in London and accuses Valentine of murdering her mother and attempts to kill him. Bevis Pod, an Apprentice Engineer, witnesses the incident and teams up with Katherine to figure out what really happened between Valentine and Pandora Shaw. Hester and Tom eventually encounter Anna Fang, an Anti-Traction League agent, who flies an airship named the Jenny Haniver. 

FUN FACT: The name "Mortal Engines" comes from the Shakespeare play Othello where Othello says "And O you mortal engines whose rude throats Th'immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit."

I am going to tell you that I loved the book. I plan on reading the rest of the series. I felt like there were so many little things about the world that drew me in and made me feel invested in the characters. (I'll explain a few of them later).

There are so many Dystopian series out there now that sometimes it is hard to keep them straight But I felt like this one was unique enough that it didn't feel too similar to some of the other popular ones. 

I also really loved the steampunk feel, which I plan on talking about it another blog post.

Normally, I am usually really good about being realistic about the way that books get turned into movies. It is extremely unrealistic for entire books to be condensed into a small enough script to be turned into a 2.5 hour movie. However, a lot of the changes made in this movie, really bother me. Like I said, I will try not to reveal too much if you haven't seen or read the book. I will do my best to warn you about spoilers.

The thing that I noticed within the first few minutes of the movie was that the movie seemed to whimsical to me. Even just the lighting and the colors that they used in some of the scenes are too bright and too light. The book is dystopian and dark in some places and I feel that they tried too hard to make it a more family friendly movie. I feel like the scenes that they show in the trailer are more demonstrative of what the film overall should look like and was disappointed and kinda confused by the whimsical feel of some of the scenes.

One of the things that I loved the most about this book was the way that it related the world we live in now to the way that it fits into the past in their world. For example, they find a CD which they consider to be a cool find which they call a "seedy." I love this subtle nod to the technology of our day. They also mention things like twenty-fifth century ceramics and the animal-headed gods of Mickey and Goofy. They try to imitate this style in the movie by including the Minions as the deities of America in the movie and Tom also finds a toaster that is highly valued--but I didn't feel like I got the same sense of history as I did in the book. 

Unfortunately, one of the major things that they changed in the movie that I didn't like is the relationships between the characters. At the beginning of the movie that make Tom and Katherine friends and they already have a relationship, where as in the book, they barely meet before Tom is ejected from the city and whisked away on his adventure. 

But especially, I was disappointed in the role of Bevis Pod in the movie. In the book, he is a main character that contributes so much to the story and ends up being the love interest for Katherine and in the movie they relegate him to the position of an unmemorable side character. He was one of the characters that I loved so much from the book that hardly even made it into the film. Oh, and he is also supposed to be bald!

A small thing, but that I think is an unfortunate side effect of our society, is that Hester's facial disfigurement in the movie is nothing more than a scar. In the book it says, "she was hideous. A terrible scar ran down her face from forehead to jaw, making it look like a portrait that had been furiously crossed out. Her mouth was wrenched sideways in a permanent sneer, her nose was a smashed stump, and her single eye stared at him out of the wreckage, as gray and chill as a winter sea." 

I think that they made this change to make the character more attractive and thus make her more relatable to the audience. In the beginning Tom calls her hideous and I think that it demonstrates a lot of character growth that both Hester goes through in her attitude as well as Tom in his perception of her that later in the story, they become friends, and then fall in love (this isn't as obvious in the movie--which is fine). I just think that it's sad that they felt like they needed to make her more attractive. Hester's hatred of herself and how she looks is a big part of her character and it's harder to see when it's a much smaller scar on her jaw versus half of her face.

It was a fun movie. I think that they did a good job with a lot of the special effects as well as the casting. I think it was a good try...but overall, after having read the book, there were too many things that were changed that I didn't feel were necessary changes. Let me know if you agree or disagree!!

If you've already read the book or saw the movie, or you don't think you ever will, feel free to read ahead for SPOILERS!

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Okay. One of the biggest things that bugged me was the ending. It was completely wrong in terms of how it should have been done. After Airhaven, Fang takes Tom and Hester to Batmunkh Gompa where the shield wall is. They discover that Valentine himself has infiltrated the city as a monk and he successfully cripples their airship fleet. Fang is then killed by Valentine here and not in London. It's then up to Tom and Hester to take the Jenny Hanniver to London and stop MEDUSA. 

They also build Valentine up as the evil mastermind villain when in the book Crome is really the driving force behind MEDUSA. This was a change I didn't really like either because it does turn Valentine from antagonist to villain. 

Katherine is so much more a part of the success of stopping London as well. she finds out that MEDUSA came from Hester's mother Pandora and he killed her in order to steal it for London. She finds out that Hester is most likely her half sister. Then Katherine and Bevis try to plant a bomb in order to destroy MEDUSA. 

One of the best parts is when the old men in the Guild of Historians come to the rescue and battle the engineers in order to save Katherine and Bevis. Tom and Hester also make their way to St. Paul's Cathedral. Tom is attacked by Valentine's airship and manages to shoot it down. Bevis is killed when he is crushed by the airship. Hester is captured and then brought to Valentine who tries to kill her, when Katherine jumps in the way and is fatally wounded. She falls on the MEDUSA controls and interrupts the firing sequence and causes it to malfunction. Both Valentine and Hester try to save Katherine but they can't. 

Hester and Tom escape in the Jenny Haniver and London is destroyed with MEDUSA misfires. 

I feel like they tried way too hard to make it into a happier ending and the sacrifices of so many of the characters that made me feel so invested were just wiped away in favor of less death. They tried too hard to make it into a family friendly movie when they needed to stay more true to the book to give the characters their justice. 

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