Mortal Engines (2018)

It's easy to see how Philip Reeve's young adult novel series got pitched to be a Hollywood franchise. The idea of a Mad Max style world of cities on wheels with a steampunk aesthetic would have had anyone excited at the possibility of seeing it onscreen. That it was Peter Jackson and his team that eventually brought it to life instantly made it one of 2018's more anticipated movies. The film looked gorgeous and the cast featured reliable actors like Hugo Weaving and Stephen Lang, but a project of this scale may have been too much for first-time director Christian Rivers. As large as the world of Mortal Engines was to discover, it left little in the way of depth to flesh out its paper thin characters. A real shame, given how interesting and wondrous a world audiences could have further explored.