Peter Jackson's 2018 film Mortal Engines grossing approximately $84 million globally.

During a recent episode of their "VFX Artists React" YouTube series, Corridor Crew VFX artists Wren, Sam, and Nico praise the work of VFX artists for creating visually captivating scenes and elaborate CGI designs. Still, they found several scenes frustrating due to rapid cutaways and mismatches with weapon realism. Additionally, the team emphasizes moments where the action felt disconnected due to inconsistent pacing. Despite these issues, the VFX remained a standout feature of the film, leaving a mixed but appreciative response to the visual execution.

I know this is not the way you normally watch movies, but it's much more entertaining. The action sequences and the set pieces were pretty sweet. Obviously, the visual effects, like, I don't really have anything to critique on them. Not that it was, it was actually kind of fun.

It's probably the best way to enjoy this movie is like seeing all the cool stuff and not having to listen to any of the dialogue. Sorry if some of you guys worked on this movie, and you're hearing me say this. I'm sorry, but it was a lot of fun watching it on mute. As far as our personal viewing experience, that was 10 out of 10. Mortal Engine is great, everyone should go watch it.

What This Means for Mortal Engines' Legacy In VFX

The Movie Puts Style Over Substance

The renewed discourse emphasizes the growing importance of visual effects in contemporary films like Mortal Engines, especially regarding overall reception. While VFX continues to push boundaries, Mortal Engines' box office shortcomings make a point that presentation alone does not guarantee success. More and more, audiences increasingly expect a balance between visual innovation and plot coherence. The film's visual achievements were commended, but the quick pacing and lack of captivation show that even impressive CGI cannot replace a well-crafted story.

Furthermore, the critical reaction to the film was overwhelmingly negative. Despite its impressive visuals, many reviews cited that the project lacks strong character development and a compelling plot, and audiences evidently felt similarly about the Jackson-produced movie. As a result, the film scored only 25% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and the audience score is also lackluster at 48%. Ultimately, the film's failure to meet audience expectations led to its rapid decline at the box office, as seen in the chart below:

Mortal Engines Was Supposed To Start A Franchise

Jackson & His Partners Couldn't Recapture Their Lord Of The Rings Magic

There are five books in the Mortal Engines saga, and the film covers only the events in the first. Hester Shaw, played in the movie by Hera Hilmer as an adult and Poppy Macleod as a child, goes on to serve as a main protagonist of the subsequent stories, and all the world-building in the first movie was clearly setting the stage for additional adaptations. The franchise was seemingly in good hands, too, as Jackson wrote the script for the film alongside Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, his collaborators on the acclaimed Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit trilogy.

Boyens and Walsh also served as producers on Mortal Engines alongside Jackson.

With a $100 million budget, Mortal Engines was likely looking at a break-even point of between $200 million and $250 million. The film, then, regardless of how well it has since performed on VOD and streaming, is sure to have lost millions. Combined with the poor critical reception, any plans that may have existed to make Mortal Engines 2 have surely long since been scrapped.

Bringing the Mortal Engines books' sci-fi world to life in any future adaptation would be a major blockbuster endeavor in of budget, and there will understandably be a lot of hesitation to do this after the 2018 film's failure. That's not to mention that the young adult movie adaptation boom ended in the 2010s, and such projects are rarer now. Though the popularity of the Mortal Engines books suggests that another adaptation could happen eventually, it definitely won't happen anytime soon.

Our Take On Mortal Engines' Mixed Appeal

There Are Still Some Positive Aspects

While Mortal Engines excelled with impressive visual effects, its faults in story development and overall pacing prevent it from leaving a lasting impact on viewers. Instead of telling a strong story and taking its characters on a compelling journey, the film falls into the trap that other major franchise plays sometimes fall into, which is spending too much time setting up the world and more interesting events to come in later installments.

Without a strong narrative foundation, even a film with amazing visuals cannot compensate for a lack of depth.

The film's over-reliance on spectacle versus narrative highlights a broader issue in modern blockbuster cinema. Without a strong narrative foundation, even a film with amazing visuals cannot compensate for a lack of depth. That said, there are elements of Mortal Engines worth praising. The world of the story, for example, is truly unique, and not something that has been seen in sci-fi before. There is clearly ambition and skill here purely on a technical level, and the film ultimately remains an impressive showcase of technical achievement.

Source: Corridor Crew/YouTube