Adaptation Month - Mortal Engines

A wrinkle in time was the second biggest box office disaster of 2018, but now we look at the actual biggest, Mortal Engines.

Mortal Engines the book was released in 2001 and the first of a quartet written by Phillip Reeve. The film rights were purchased in 2009 by Peter Jackson, best known for the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy and the dull as sh*t Hobbit movies. He’s no stranger to adaptations is all I’m saying. He’s among the writers for the screenplay along with Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens, both of whom also worked on the aforementioned trilogies.

Directing the movie is Christian Rivers, who has experience in quite a bit of film-making, having met Peter Jackson at 17 and worked with him on various projects. This is his first stint as a full on director though. Not exactly encouraging for a project with a budget of up to $150m. It really backfired, earning $83m at the box office. And it didn’t do great with audiences, 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average 4.9/10 and an audience score of 50% average 3.17/5. Before we get to adaptation, here are my brief thoughts on both.

The book

Ignoring the premise that is ludicrously absurd, the book does a decent job of tying it to something resembling reality… Until a moment right near the climax of the book which is so ludicrous it takes me out of the story and into the next galaxy. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book written from a third person perspective. It’s probably for the best since we follow so many characters in this.

The Film

It’s a very pretty movie, and I’m afraid that’s about as far as I can go when it comes to compliments, I guess it’s self-contained which is something. It’s blatantly clear that Christian Rivers’ skills aren’t in directing, as this film isn’t the best acted. I can’t really talk too much about the plot but there are tones of holes in it. I can see why Peter Jackson made little effort when promoting this.

But let’s talk adaptation

What they kept

I think I’ve said this before, but this is going to be a short list. The opening with the Predator City of London (+10) pursuing and eating a small city (+10) recently after crossing the landbridge. Tom, working as a historian working at the city museum (+10) being sent to the gut (+10) to scavenge materials of potential historical importance for the museum. Being introduced to Mr Valentine (+10) who on the surface seems a kindly man who respects Tom (+10)

Hester Shaw sneaking aboard London in the town it just ate and making an attempt on Valentine’s life (+10) that Tom thwarts (+10), Tom chasing her through London which culminates in her falling into a waste chute (+10), Valentine throwing Tom down the chute too since he knows her name (+10) Shrike, a stalker, being sent to kill Hester, which he does willingly (+10)

Hester and Tom being captured aboard a ship called the Scuttlebutt to be sold as slaves (+10), being rescued by an anti-tractionist called Anna Fang and being taken to an air city (+10) when they’re attacked by Shrike (+10)

Hester’s backstory is mostly true to the book, her mother having uncovered a piece of ancient technology (+10) and Valentine killing her for it, and scarring Hester in the process (+10) and her spending a lot of time with Shrike before making a move to London (+10)

Tom’s parents being killed by collapsing debris during ‘the great tilt’ is also true to the book (+5).

As for the climax, the best I can say is it does take place at the wall of Shan Guo (+5) and involves the weapon MEDUSA (+5). Valentine’s daughter and Bevis Pod investigating is also somewhat true to the book (+10), Tom not wanting the united fleet to bomb London (+5) I’m really clutching at straws here guys, I think we need to move on.

190 adaptation points scored, but let’s see how that changes when we look at

What they Changed

Tom watching the town being eaten was trouble for him in the book, as his boss had told him not to (-5). Hester was injured whilst in London, the scavs that attacked them, and them falling into the Scuttlebug by chance are film only (-5) hence she was a lot more grateful for Tom’s help from the get-go. They were offered refuge in the Scuttlebug and ate some drugged food that resulted in their capture (-5)

Tom and Hester were able to escape Scuttlebug in the book, they bumped into Anna Fang, who rescued them rather than seeing them sold into slavery (-5) the action scenes at the trading outpost are all film only, Shrike didn’t show up till a few chapters later in the book (-5).

Whilst Shrike attacking them whilst in the airbase is in the book, the damage caused to the base wasn’t the whole thing exploding like it was in the film (-5)

Hester’s origin does have some slight changes, first of all Valentine is NOT Hester’s father (-5), her actual father and dog were killed by Valentine when her mother was killed (-5). Second, it’s revealed a little earlier on in the book, around the point where in the film she said they weren’t going to share backstories (-5)

Mayor Magnus Chrome wasn’t an old fool in the book, he was in charge from the start and it was very clear that Valentine was working for him (-5) there was no mutiny where Valentine kills the Mayor (-5) nor is there an attempt to kamikaze the shield wall after MEDUSA fails (-5) Speaking of MEDUSA, the cut-off key is film only (-5)

The promise Hester made to Shrike is film only (-5) which is weird because she’s more willing to embrace it in the book (-5). Shrike was also imprisoned in London (-5) rather than out to sea, and had an airship entourage so he didn’t need to steal an airship like in the film (-5).

Anna Fang was more curious about London’s plan in the book rather than just being completely ignorant of him like she was in the film. (-5) Her wishes to have her ashes scattered in what may as well have been a ‘I am going to die’ hammer hitting you in the face is film only (-5)

95 points lost here, leaving 95 points as we move into

What they left out

Some of these might be considered changes, but I’m going to cover them in the left out section as they’re pretty big changes

Let’s start with Hester and Tom’s journey: they didn’t defeat Shrike at the air-town, they just barely escaped, piloting the airship away to use it as a decoy (-10) (Shrike wasn’t actually fooled, but was impressed enough to allow Hester a few extra hours) they end up on the Town of Tunbridge Wheels (pun) where the captain, who Hester knew from her time with Shrike, wants help from Tom to sound more posh (-10) the saga has an unfortunate end as the prey they thought would be easy ends up being the ruins of air-town, with airships swarming to it’s defence and destroying Tunbridge Wheels. (-10)

The Captain ends up killed and the rest of the crew turn on the two, they are conveniently saved by the arrival of Shrike, where Hester tries to get Shrike to spare Tom, which he would have agreed to, if Tom hadn’t thrust a sword straight through him, destroying him. (-10) They meet back up with Anna Fang at this point but Tom is momentarily mistrustful of her thanks to her allegiance to the anti-tractionists (-10) I will say most of this adds nothing to the plot, so it was probably worthwhile cutting it out.

Katherine runs a more thorough investigation into her father and the attack, which starts with her eavesdropping on a conversation between her father and the Mayor (-10). Valentine then tells her that he’s leaving and is absent from the town for a sizeable chunk of the book, we’ll get to what he was up to later on. Katherine then has a fruitless meeting with the Mayor himself (-10) before deciding to head down to the gut. She finds a prison where prisoners (including political) were forced to work with sewage until they die (-10) it’s there where she meets Bevis Pod who tells her that Tom did not fall into the chute with Hester

They later find out about MEDUSA and sneak into a meeting where it’s being displayed as Medusa destroys a large town they found as they headed full speed to the shield wall. (-10) they’re briefly spotted and Bevis Pod is hid in the museum with the guild of Historians agreeing to protect him.

Anna Fang, Hester and Tom arrive at the shield wall, where the plan is to send out the air fleet but Valentine had been sent ahead to deal with it and blew up the entire fleet (-10). Just to make things worse Anna Fang confronted him and he manages to strike a killing blow as his ship arrived to pick him up (-10) this is replaced in the film by having MEDUSA wipe out the entire fleet and Anna Fang’s death moved to later on.

Katherine confronts Valentine and she finally comes to the realisation as to the kind of man he is, she’d been in a kind of denial for most of the book. She returns to the museum and plans with Bevis pod to destroy MEDUSA with homemade explosives (-10) unfortunately for them, Herbert Melliphant betrays them. He betrays them in the film but rather than revealing the location of old tech for MEDUSA, he tells the Lord Mayor Katherine’s entire plan. (-5). Unfortunately, it’s at this point we hear of the Lord Mayor’s long term goals, to turn the Earth into a giant space-ship and go around eating other planets like it’s a game of pac-man. He even thinks they’ll eat suns. I know it’s supposed to show he’s gone nuts but this is something from a cheesy classic Doctor Who serial (-10)

There is an assault on the museum, where the Historians use various artefacts to stand their ground (-10), as Pomfroy shows the two the Cat’s Cradle to get them close to the Cathedral. The Cradle was also used in the film, but only so they could view the device (-5)

Tom ends up piloting Anna Fang’s ship to get Hester close enough to kill Valentine, Valentine’s ship, the 13^th Floor Elevator is dispatched to stop them but Tom exploits a weakness, causing it to crash down into London, killing several people below (-10) the death doesn’t really stop there. Katherine decides to forgo the explosives and save Hester from her father by taking the blow herself (-10) the threat of MEDUSA ends up being stopped by the mother of convenience, the system ends up taking itself out, and with it most of London (-10) I guess this is meant to be a warning about the dangers of working with stuff you don’t completely understand.  

Hester and Valentine try to get Katherine help but she’s dead quickly. Hester jumps aboard and the two take off, Tom feeling sad about his role in all this death (-10)

The Star Wars-esque climax is a film only addition, and it’s honestly a rather silly one. Although I do understand it being less of a downer than the book’s ultimate end.

190 points lost here, bringing the adaptation score to a woeful -95 points

In terms of adaptation, this movie is a mess. In terms of production, this movie is a mess. The only thing it has in its favour is it being pretty.