Thankfully, the reviews helped us getting into this movie with the right expectation. The movie is empty, hollow, predictable, rushed. The effects are slightly entertaining but fail to keep your interest for longer than 10-20 minutes.

The only light in this movie, is brought to you by Stephen Lang's portrayal of the soulless and heartless monster Shrike. With a short amount of screen time, text and action, he is the only character that makes this movie slightly interesting. After that, the movie hits a wall. ;)

Another day, another Hollywood adaptation of a popular young adult novel. This time around it's MORTAL ENGINES, in which a heroine with a designer scar does battle with the boringly evil British ruler of a moving city that travels around decimating and assimilating its enemies. Yep, it's another story that takes heavy-handed swipes at colonialism while eager to put across its 'woke' credentials. However, it's also long-winded and completely mundane, offering CGI augmented action scenes and visuals that have already been done countless times. At this point in time, all of the HUNGER GAMES, DIVERGENT and other young adult offspring feel interchangeable, with no voice or insight of their own, and nothing to make them stand out from the crowd...

The long forgotten world was destroyed in sixty minutes by a weapon called Medusa. It's now a post-apocalyptic world where cities are mounted on wheels and devouring each other for the limited remaining resources. London has crossed a land-bridge to raid the dwindling supply of smaller settlements. Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) is the ruthless leader working on a secret program. His daughter Katherine is innocent. Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) is a historian trying to hide the salvaged ancient weapon tech. When Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) tries to assassinate Thaddeus, Tom uncovers one of his secrets and gets thrown out of London.

I really like the outlandish premise. There is fun craziness. Hester is a great character and played by the compelling Hera Hilmar. On the other hand, Sheehan is playing his usual talkative know-it-all. He's a bit annoying and not the best romantic lead. Quite frankly, it's better to have Sheehan and Ronan Raftery switch roles. Ronan seems more like the boy scout type and would pair better with Hera. Sheehan would give more spice to the pairing with Leila George. It may still be a great movie until the third act turns into a grinding never-ending ending.

I would rearrange the final battle entirely. After defeating Shrike, Hester finds the crash drive. Hester and Tom sneak back into London. They reunite with Katherine and the group sneaks into St. Paul's. Thaddeus fires the weapon once which starts to malfunction. Random strikes hit everywhere including London and the small group fights to stop Medusa saving not just the wall but also London itself. It's a tighter ending. It's not as action packed but it's much better to have the group together. Overall, I like this movie. I like the start more and the ending is not so bad. It could definitely be better. For one thing, the world should be deader. There is way too much green plant life. The world should be a desert. It's post-apocalyptic after all.