The "Discount Mad Max" Claims
Did you enjoy the new Mortal Engines movie teaser that came out last week?
It had a giant city chasing a smaller traction city. The new one directed by Christian Rivers? Well, according to so many people on Twitter, the new Mortal Engines is a bit like Mad Max 3. And therefore is "discount Mad Max" or "literally looks like a rip-off of Mad Max."
I presume this is in reference to Fury Road, which was a fabulous movie and a sumptuous CGI delight of trucks and cars trying to crush one another.
That said:
- The Mad Max I know is a biker gang terrorizing Max's family.
- The Mad Max I know is a gang led by a flamboyant gentleman called Lord Humungus.
- The Mad Max I know is all about a pig killer.
- The Mad Max I know is about a one-armed truck driver who can kick it with the worst of them.
These are great movies, all visionary in various ways. They are not about giant cities that roam the Earth looking for resources. And they certainly do not look like what we saw in the Mortal Engines teaser trailer.
But so many people seem to have commented that it is. We honestly wonder why this is?
If they are referring to Mad Max: Fury Road, this is Mad Max: Fury Road:
Which frankly reminds me of this guy from Rogue One:
The Star Wars Connection
Sure, there's a big chase going on in Fury Road and there's one going on in Mortal Engines, so that must be it, right?
Well, if anything, that teaser is basically a remix of the opening two minutes of one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time: Star Wars.
You recall how that goes, right? A massive Star Destroyer rolls down the screen, and it takes what seems like forever to show the scale of the thing. We then see it is actually chasing a smaller ship, which it eventually captures and draws into itself.
Which is basically the teaser! So instead of saying Mortal Engines looks like Mad Max, wouldn't it be more accurate to gripe that it riffs on the start of Star Wars?
A Crash Course in Post-Apocalyptic Cinema
The truth is that for most people of a certain age (i.e., young Twitter users who comment on movie trailers), Mad Max: Fury Road is possibly their only reference point for a post-apocalyptic event movie.
I'd wager most of them have not seen the original Mad Max trilogy for a start. They've probably never seen The Road, The Postman, THX 1138, The Book of Eli, Waterworld, Escape from New York, 12 Monkeys, The Quiet Earth, Zardoz, Cherry 2000, Judge Dredd (the Stallone version), or Planet of the Apes.
One could argue that Mortal Engines looks a lot like some of those movies. Or not.
I passed comment on Twitter about this matter, as any rabid fanboy that is hugely protective of THEIR story is wont to do. And none other than the writer of the novels, Philip Reeve, chipped in with his views:
We still don't quite see it, but hey, if the book's author gets it, maybe I should just chill out and get back to over-thinking the fact that Hester Shaw has two eyes... or wondering about Howl's Moving Castle...
We just hope the movie is more "Helm's Deep on wheels."
A Unique Dystopia
Anyways, Christian Rivers has specifically commented on this aesthetic choice:
"We didn't want it to be post-apocalyptic dystopia. So, we didn't want it to be 'Mad Max.' We didn't want it to be 'Hunger Games' or 'Divergent.' That's kind of a bleak, dystopian sort of film, you know? It needed to tie to our world."
And if you want to read without a sense of irony (?), Philip Reeve actually wrote up a review of Mad Max: Fury Road!
We're also amused to see that Junkie XL, who did the Mad Max score, is composing the soundtrack for ME.
