Mortal Engines is the latest in teen novels to get the live action treatment brought to you by the makers of the Lord of the Rings franchise, Weta.  They live up to their name in visual effects and cinematography but fall way short on casting and directing.  It would seem that the majority of the budget was spent on the visual aspects of the film leaving not much room to cast known actors that could carry the burden of selling a futuristic dystopian steampunk-ish future.   The casting screams of hopeful ambition to create new fresh stars as many other teen novel franchises have done in the past.  The casting director truly missed opportunity to bring in the experience needed to make a film with too many subplots and an outrageous futuristic society work.

Hera Hilmar (Hester Shaw) is the new comer chose to lead this film franchise, along with a handsome love interest played by Robert Sheehan (Tom Natsworthy), and Jihae (Anna Fang).  Jihae, who looks more like a bad lesbian Asian Elvis impersonator rather than revolutionary, gives her character little emotion and no depth.  While Sheehan succeeds in moments yet overall gives a mediocre performance, Hilmar is every bit of average and fails at building a connection with the audience.  Patrick Malahide (Magnus Crome) and Hugo Weaving (Thaddeus Valentine) are the veteran castings and the diamonds in the rough of this cast.  Without them many may have left the theatre before Mortal Engines finale.  There are a handful of minor characters used to nudge the story along, however their performances were on par with the rest of the cast and their characters are forgotten minutes after leaving the film.

Weta should be applauded for having the ambition to take on such an imaginative story and visually delivering the goods.  Without knowing exactly where to place the blame on casting, Mortal Engines shortcomings can fall on director Christian Rivers.  Foreshadowing that screams in your face leading to predictable flashbacks that are underwhelming. It’s disheartening that the efforts put in by Weta to visually bring monstrous rolling cities to life is spoiled by poor choices in acting and storytelling.  A movie for all ages to be disappointed, let this review pull back the grandiose expectations set by the media campaign and allow you to watch what may be your favorite book series traditionally ruined by the money grabbing machine that is Hollywood.