MORTAL ENGINES

Hera Hilmer     Hugo Weaving     Jihae     Robert Sheehan     Leila George     Stephen Lang

     How often has someone’s pursuit of absolute power been the downfall of mortals? Far too many times in fiction and history.  In Mortal Engines, this drama is played out on the screen once again.  The film seems to have been made primarily as a special effects spectacle—and indeed these are impressive, along with production design by Dan Hennah.  I especially took to the red transport resembling an elegantly designed flying insect that belongs to Anna Fang.  But the “mortal engines”, cities, and terrain as a whole are wonderfully constructed to look like an amalgam of the ancient world and some kind of futuristic scientific technology. These set the stage for the story; with resources scarce all over the world, larger cities are gobbling up smaller ones for their resources, and enslave their populations. Director Christian Rivers’ background is in storyboard art and visual and special effects, which is surely likely to have influenced the making of the film.

     Drama is secondary, although this film is better than most in the genre to portray three-dimensional human beings wrapped up in a fairly complex story.  I especially hooted/cheered about historians playing heroic as well as demonic roles.

     Major players include Hester Shaw (Hilmer) who covers her face with a red scarf and has more than one person chasing after her for either good or ill.  She’s got an ongoing score to settle with Thaddeus Valentine (Weaving) having to do with her deceased mother, an archeologist who made a significant discovery.  He is head of the Guild of Historians, but has a secret major project he is determined to see come into fruition.  Tom Natsworthy (Sheehan) is a distractible historian and something of an outcast who works for Valentine, but his skills in “old technology” (“old” means prior to the “Sixty Minute War” that destroyed much of the earth—including America—and its technology) are valuable because the city of London is dying from lack of natural resources and it needs a miracle solution.  

     Two ancillary characters are important:  Anna Fang (Jihae), although now an outlaw, knew Hester’s mother and is bound to look after Hester if she can just locate her.  Shrike (Lang), a creature made by a group that literally deposited their own negative traits into beings they created for that purpose, wants to find Hester to force her to keep a promise she made to him.

From the opening scenes when the cities on giant wheels lumber across the countryside—one chasing the other—through the awkward romance, and to the climactic final battle, Mortal Engines seems to follow the usual script of “little” people going after the big players who have no heart and exploit everyone they can in the interest of achieving some self-serving goal.  The actors, especially Hera Hilmer as Hester, make their characters come alive and pull for your emotional reaction to them.  

     Mortal Engines is not a groundbreaking movie, but it will appeal to fans who like stories based on fantasy loosely tied to history and science, especially if it has glorious special effects.

Mortal Engines is like tripping the light fantastic.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

DON'T BREATHE

Stephen Lang     Jane Levy     Dylan Minnette     Daniel Zovatto

          Chills and thrills a’plenty are in Don’t Breathe.  Three young pals, Rocky (Levy), Alex (Minnette), and Money (Zovalto)—pun intended, I suppose—are making their living by stealing from other people.  One has a connection to an alarm company, which allows them to disengage the alarms, enter homes and help themselves.  They have to hand over a high percentage of what they get to a “handler” who lets them know which houses to hit.  Then, as expected a really big job comes up, and at first Alex is reluctant because he knows the penalties if they’re caught, depending on the circumstances and whether or not they’re armed.  He has his limits as to how much risk he wants to take.

          Money, on the other hand, who seems to have no scruples about anything, is gung ho for the job, as is his girlfriend Rocky.  After Alex reads a news story about the blind man who lives in the house, he decides to join them after all.  The blind man (Lang) is ex-military and received a handsome settlement in a legal suit.  Since he lives in a modest house in a neighborhood in Detroit that is mostly abandoned, there is likely to be a stash of cash on hand.

         Off they go, and actually get into the house, but what awaits them there will be surprise after horrible surprise.  That could be one of the weaknesses of the plot—at least six times you think it’s going to end, but Director Fede Alvarez and his co-writer Rodo Sayagues, always have one more gasp up their sleeves.  The plot goes upstairs, downstairs, in the cellar, in the attic, and outdoors.  There are locks to break (and sometimes the intruders are locked inside), guns to fire, and a muscular ex-military fighter who doesn’t need his eyes to take someone down. 

          The plot is intelligent, mostly, with clever twists, such as the fact that in the beginning the viewer will have little sympathy for the thieves, especially Money, although Rocky is a single mother with a rough background who cares deeply for her daughter.  Then as the plot unfolds what Alex and Rocky have done fades in comparison to what they encounter.  Which is a true horror story.

       As with almost all the horror movies I’ve seen, though, I roll my eyes when the characters do stupid things and don’t take advantage of ways to escape, and that happens here.  Both Alex and Rocky could have gotten out of the situation a number of times.  Rocky is a bit more understandable in the sense that she stubbornly pursues her goals, and if there is any chance at all to get away with the loot, she will try.  The filmmakers have hooked Alex in by making him have the hots for Rocky, who is Money’s girlfriend, and clearly he feels protective of her and will not leave until he knows she is safe.

         Stephen Lang as the blind man convinces us of a layered personality with muscular arms that are as intimidating as his blank but intelligent eyes.  He has to use his other senses to detect who is around and where, which he does mostly with accuracy until he gets desperate and rattled, then he is a wild man.  But he pretty much gets our sustained attention over the long haul.  The twist in his story is the most chilling of all.  Minnette, Levy, and Zovatto carry off their roles with ease, and move the plot along over the tense terrain.

A good come-on for horror fans with its gripping plot twists.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland