Most of us have our childhood memories of sitting in a warm, dark Movie theater on a cold weekend afternoon during the holiday season, watching a movie that really impressed us. One of the memories that stand out most for me was when I saw Star Trek the Motion Picturewhen it released during the Christmas season of 1979. I hated it. But still, it impressed me with it’s cinematography and special effects likened to those of Star Wars, the movie that Motion Picture’sproducers were competing with during that space opera craze. I would come to actually like this film several years later, especially when I got into my Star Trek fan phase in high school. In fact, and I don’t care if anyone attempts to stone me for it, it’s my favourite of the Star Trek movies for reasons that I’m not going to go into here. But perhaps, one very tiny reason is nostalgia. And for the past three holiday seasons we’ve had Star Wars films releasing which will probably be memorable to many kids when they get older. However, this holiday season the flick that a kid just might get a childhood memory from when he or she grows up may be the new post-apocalyptic sci fi movie--Mortal Engines.

I haven’t seen Mortal Engines myself yet but am going to try this weekend. That’s regardless of, like with Star Trek the Motion Picturemore than 30 years ago, critics saying that it’s a flop. But those can mostly be general film critics for all we know. Us sci fi/fantasy nerds often have different, more open-minded, standards when it comes to judging films of our genre. I can’t yet say exactly why this movie is that great but of what I’ve seen in the trailers the cinematography is far out fantastic! The movie’s based on Philip Reeve’s YA book of the same name. It’s directed by Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. As in the original book, the story is set on a post-apocalyptic earth in the distant future when society has regressed back to diesel industrial age technology and cities are on the go—literally. They are mobile and so travel on tracks similar to railroads. One of these cities is preying on and destroying whatever is in it’s path and a group of young rebels attempts to stop it.

Usually I try to look at both reviews that give a movie a bad rating and ones that give it a good rating. Then I decide whether the movie’s worth paying 8 to 10 bucks to see on the big screen. The reviews that give Mortal Engines a bad rating are definitely easy to find. Just go to Rotten Tomatoes, that gave it an overall “rotten” rating, and look at its list of review links. But if you want a critic’s opinion about why this movie may be so good, an opinion that is well thought out and supported by referencing scenes and details from the film and book, I recommend reading Mike Perschon’s review at his blog, the Steampunk Scholar. 

If Mortal Enginesdoesn’t turn out to be that good of a film that at least a science fiction critic can give a good rating, and so if it truly is a flop rather than a movie among the many underrated sci fi movies, maybe something good about it will stay in our heads to remember this holiday season by. Even if that something is only the cinematography and special effects.

Is Mortal Enginesa movie you’re willing to give a try this holiday season?

Until next time . . .