Mortal Engines

Many thousands of years in the future, Earth’s cities roam the globe on huge wheels, devouring each other in a struggle for ever diminishing resources. On one of these massive traction cities, the old London, Tom Natsworthy has an unexpected encounter with a mysterious young woman from the wastelands who will change the course of his life forever.

Mortal Engines drew largely negative reviews that zeroed in on a plot critics found derivative and incoherent, even as many acknowledged the film's spectacular world-building and visual ambition. The central split was between those who found the imagery enough to carry an otherwise hollow story and those who felt no amount of spectacle could rescue what they saw as a mechanical, borrowed narrative. A minority of reviewers — particularly outside the US and UK — responded more warmly to the film's tone, pacing, and social subtext.