Mortal Engines: Cities Rolling for Resources

By Péter MARTON
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Based on a children's book by British author Philip Reeve, Mortal Engines hit the cinemas last December. It is certainly interesting as a piece of European science fiction as it shows far future London and other cities, the cities on wheels known as the Traction Cities in the book, as resource-devouring monstrous structures which you can't help but think metropolises actually are, as we speak. The greed of cities that persists even in the post-apocalypse is clearly a bit of an anti-Capitalist theme here (the scenes from the movie, of people cheering as London captures Salzhaken or as it meets the Capitalist Frontier in the Shield Wall of Shan Guo, may remind one of a shareholder meeting where the juicy takeover of another company is on the agenda).

London, rolling, with St. Paul's on top

  

The idea is thus serious enough and regardless of Brexit it is European enough as well (although the film's story draws boundaries differently and London is mentioned as "having crossed over to Europe").

The adaptation features a number of European actors, including, among others, Hera Hilmar from Iceland (in one of the leading roles), Robert Sheehan and Ronan Raftery from Ireland, and English actor Patrick Malahide (as the mayor of London).

Having just seen the movie, I would say that the spectacle of the Traction Cities may be worth the admission ticket if you're like me. Your imagination is stimulated, come whatever may thereafter. The town of Scuttlebug was my favourite, a stealth traction city mimicking something between centipedes and silverfish. Shrike the cyborg has his good moments, too, although his part goes a little OTT (over the top). 

Apart from this? The plot is infantilistic (this may be an understatement). The actors look like fashion models. The dialogues are out of this world in a bad way.

The story cannot be much smarter or more realistic than the children's book it is based on, of course, if it is to be a loyal interpretation, but it goes below the level of the original. Somehow, in the world of this story, there are cities that are not resource-devouring monstrous structures because they are either (1) small peace-loving Bavarian mining towns like Salzhaken or (2) behind a wall and not rolling, like Shan Guo, a true Oriental wonder of an Orientalist's mind where there are no reeducation camps for Uighurs or Weapons of Mass Destruction like the air of Shanghai. 

SPOILER:

The ending is a bit like the closing scene of the Snowpiercer movie. It is meant to be uplifting but -- with London in ruins and the Shield Wall of Shan Guo destroyed, and based on what we know from the movie itself -- you just know that Panzerstadt is coming in for the kill, ohne Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. 

P.S. Some keep mentioning steampunk related to the film, and I can see why. Because of the airships, for example. But there are fusion reactors here, too, so this is definitely not pure steampunk.

Previously reviewed here in EUtopias and Other Futures: A collection of Hungarian SF and fantasy short stories, edited by Csilla Kleinheincz and Gábor Roboz