The Real Reason Mortal Engines Was A Massive Box Office Flop
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I would have started the first movie a millennia before and introduced the concept of moving cities as a sort of prologue. A sort of Whyd they come to be in the first place? Which is really the quintessential story of survival, something everyone can relate to. Show London or other cities getting ravaged by northern raiders and the driving need to stay mobile and escape them.
Fast forward a few hundred years where you could explore the archeological digs in the dead continent with Hesters Mother, the primary conflict being the protection of the MEDUSA technology from being rediscovered ending with her death and Hesters discovery by Shrike. Play that one out in a way where you can see Thaddeus gradually being exposed for a sociopath bent on world domination. Get the audiences to actually like him at first and then he turns heel at the end.
Finally, your third flick is where you get introduced to the ATL and more or less what you had in the current movie. But youve learned enough back story to keep it interesting and built enough suspense that people want to see the conclusion.
Date: 2020-07-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
cliffedward
I steeled myself to watch this prepared for the worst after reading negative reviews about it. I was surprised. Even though I watched it on DVD it was visually stunning and I can only imagine what it was like in 3D and the big screen. My first negative reaction was the casting. Hugo Weaving? Big mistake. He. .. talks. .. so. .. slow I felt like I was being hypnotized. He really hasn't moved on much from his role as Agent Smith in The Matrix. He had the same slow delivery in Lord Of The Rings. There was no humour and the two main characters had no personality. If Sir Peter thought he was going to cast some relatively unknowns in the starring role and make them big stars he was wrong.
This only worked in LOTR because the cast was like a family and they bonded off screen. Like most reviewers I felt Shrike was the scene stealer. They could make a hole movie about him. Judging from the pic we saw of a young guy holding a child he has a back story.
You do wonder if the studiois had much faith in the movie when they kept using Sir Peter to promote it. It gave the impression that he had directed it. Shame that a first time director should have a big flop like this. Must be very disheartening.
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I steeled myself to watch this prepared for the worst after reading negative reviews about it. I was surprised. Even though I watched it on DVD it was visually stunning and I can only imagine what it was like in 3D and the big screen. My first negative reaction was the casting. Hugo Weaving? Big mistake. He. .. talks. .. so. .. slow I felt like I was being hypnotized. He really hasn't moved on much from his role as Agent Smith in The Matrix. He had the same slow delivery in Lord Of The Rings. There was no humour and the two main characters had no personality. If Sir Peter thought he was going to cast some relatively unknowns in the starring role and make them big stars he was wrong.
This only worked in LOTR because the cast was like a family and they bonded off screen. Like most reviewers I felt Shrike was the scene stealer. They could make a hole movie about him. Judging from the pic we saw of a young guy holding a child he has a back story.
You do wonder if the studiois had much faith in the movie when they kept using Sir Peter to promote it. It gave the impression that he had directed it. Shame that a first time director should have a big flop like this. Must be very disheartening.
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Shadelz
I, for myself, thought the movie was absolutely amazing when I first saw it, I had seen a couple of uninteresting trailers but went and saw it anyway (not in the cinema, sadly) and I came to a surprise when I realized the incredible flop it had been.
After seeing it a couple of times, I came to realize the flaws That the first viewing had me blinded of, and I realize that the story is conservative at best, and boring at worst, with the visuals and fascinating world to hold the movie up. I still don't think it deserved this flop however, and after seeing the trailers more recently, I realized how unfinished the product looked. 90% of the shots seen in the trailer were either not used in the film, or with unfinished effects for some reason. They just didn't look interesting, and I belive they were rushed (120 million in marketing? My arse.
Basically I want to say what many others have already in This comment section: I belive the poor marketing mainly killed this movie, either by poor quality, or simply lack of it.
Same with treasure planet now that I think about it.
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I, for myself, thought the movie was absolutely amazing when I first saw it, I had seen a couple of uninteresting trailers but went and saw it anyway (not in the cinema, sadly) and I came to a surprise when I realized the incredible flop it had been.
After seeing it a couple of times, I came to realize the flaws That the first viewing had me blinded of, and I realize that the story is conservative at best, and boring at worst, with the visuals and fascinating world to hold the movie up. I still don't think it deserved this flop however, and after seeing the trailers more recently, I realized how unfinished the product looked. 90% of the shots seen in the trailer were either not used in the film, or with unfinished effects for some reason. They just didn't look interesting, and I belive they were rushed (120 million in marketing? My arse.
Basically I want to say what many others have already in This comment section: I belive the poor marketing mainly killed this movie, either by poor quality, or simply lack of it.
Same with treasure planet now that I think about it.
reply
ToyCarCollector. com
When returning to Redbox I saw this title and never heard of it before. I thought it was awesome! The amount of effort and detail it took to make this story seem almost possible was unbelievable. The acting was pretty good too and while watching especially the Walled City's flight deck it made me think this is how good Star Wars use to be before being populated with Mouseketeers. I love sci-fi and I just sat through that stinky Dr. Who season and was punished by the new Star Trek Discovery fiasco and I think this was the best sci-fi in years. Very enjoyable minus the overly long fight scenes. Would have liked to know how/why the robot came to be also.
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When returning to Redbox I saw this title and never heard of it before. I thought it was awesome! The amount of effort and detail it took to make this story seem almost possible was unbelievable. The acting was pretty good too and while watching especially the Walled City's flight deck it made me think this is how good Star Wars use to be before being populated with Mouseketeers. I love sci-fi and I just sat through that stinky Dr. Who season and was punished by the new Star Trek Discovery fiasco and I think this was the best sci-fi in years. Very enjoyable minus the overly long fight scenes. Would have liked to know how/why the robot came to be also.
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Theon
The movie was very generic and predictable. They cut out all the edgy and unusual things from the book and made it into a kind of cliche hero adventure. Example, Hester suppose to be like really disfigured with missing eye and nose. In the movie she got a cute little scar on her cheek and that's it. Tom in the book was pretty cowardly and closed minded. He pretty much pissed himself when Shrike showed up. I mean to be honest I don't even like the book that much either. There is a lot of cliches and plot devises that ruin immersion. I might give second book a shot just to see if it gets better. The idea for the world is not bad really.
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The movie was very generic and predictable. They cut out all the edgy and unusual things from the book and made it into a kind of cliche hero adventure. Example, Hester suppose to be like really disfigured with missing eye and nose. In the movie she got a cute little scar on her cheek and that's it. Tom in the book was pretty cowardly and closed minded. He pretty much pissed himself when Shrike showed up. I mean to be honest I don't even like the book that much either. There is a lot of cliches and plot devises that ruin immersion. I might give second book a shot just to see if it gets better. The idea for the world is not bad really.
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NGC7603
The movie is great as is the book. Sure it's an adaptation, sure Hester looks different, but THAT IS OKAY. What is really sad is how people would march into theatres for anything labeled Marvel (for example, but give something new a chance? Nah, they want more superhero/starwars/whatever else they already know.
You know, same thing happened to my favourite movie of all time - the Strange Days. That movie made Ralph Fiennes my favourite actor long before any Potters showed up. Check it out if you didn't see it, his acting there is just the best, the story's great too.
Somehow the general public never wants to see such films.
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The movie is great as is the book. Sure it's an adaptation, sure Hester looks different, but THAT IS OKAY. What is really sad is how people would march into theatres for anything labeled Marvel (for example, but give something new a chance? Nah, they want more superhero/starwars/whatever else they already know.
You know, same thing happened to my favourite movie of all time - the Strange Days. That movie made Ralph Fiennes my favourite actor long before any Potters showed up. Check it out if you didn't see it, his acting there is just the best, the story's great too.
Somehow the general public never wants to see such films.
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Kwanele
They spent way too much time telling instead of showing. ironically.
Imagine a robot AI dictactor for our world programmed to be evil, he won't have trusted advisers, friends, family, rivals, regrets, role models etc unlike real dictators who's every action can be understood one way or another just by knowing their pasts and that's where this movie is lacking, it needs characters who are from that world instead of hero, villain and dying sidecharacter archetypes running around in a cool high budget setting like AI's programmed to do just that
I DID NOT HAVE TO SEE ANY FLASHBACKS!
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They spent way too much time telling instead of showing. ironically.
Imagine a robot AI dictactor for our world programmed to be evil, he won't have trusted advisers, friends, family, rivals, regrets, role models etc unlike real dictators who's every action can be understood one way or another just by knowing their pasts and that's where this movie is lacking, it needs characters who are from that world instead of hero, villain and dying sidecharacter archetypes running around in a cool high budget setting like AI's programmed to do just that
I DID NOT HAVE TO SEE ANY FLASHBACKS!
reply
None
I still don't get how movies are rated by their theater audiences only, and usually only the first few weeks of them. After cinema DVD sales must be at least as large a market by now, and we have an ample history of films flopping at the box office only to become cult classics a few years later. Now I am not saying that Mortal Engines is a future cult classic, but with years of investment in pre-production, how does everyone still expect movies to pay off that investment in a matter of weeks?
Also: MORE money for marketing than for actual production! What the hell!
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I still don't get how movies are rated by their theater audiences only, and usually only the first few weeks of them. After cinema DVD sales must be at least as large a market by now, and we have an ample history of films flopping at the box office only to become cult classics a few years later. Now I am not saying that Mortal Engines is a future cult classic, but with years of investment in pre-production, how does everyone still expect movies to pay off that investment in a matter of weeks?
Also: MORE money for marketing than for actual production! What the hell!
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Amanda
I saw the first trailer when we went to see Star Wars ep 8 in December 2017 and I was fascinated by it. I went home and got the audio books and fell in love with the whole story. I wasn't too disappointed in the film, however extremely disappointed in how little it was advertised. I kept dying for more trailers and it wasn't until fall I think when they finally released a second one. There is absolutely no way they spent as much as they claim on advertising.
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I saw the first trailer when we went to see Star Wars ep 8 in December 2017 and I was fascinated by it. I went home and got the audio books and fell in love with the whole story. I wasn't too disappointed in the film, however extremely disappointed in how little it was advertised. I kept dying for more trailers and it wasn't until fall I think when they finally released a second one. There is absolutely no way they spent as much as they claim on advertising.
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TrevelyanOO6
I saw this recently at home and liked it. For me the phrase municipal darwinism was enough to explain the concept. It was clear London had consumed all GB had to offer and moved to Europe. I took the whole thing as a metaphor for our current banking system; which make the choice of London even more obvious (given its home to the city of london corporation)I am also a fan of the original C4 Misfits series, so it was fun to see Robert Sheehan again.
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I saw this recently at home and liked it. For me the phrase municipal darwinism was enough to explain the concept. It was clear London had consumed all GB had to offer and moved to Europe. I took the whole thing as a metaphor for our current banking system; which make the choice of London even more obvious (given its home to the city of london corporation)I am also a fan of the original C4 Misfits series, so it was fun to see Robert Sheehan again.
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