Mortal Engines
Directed by Christian Rivers
Many thousands of years in the future, Earth’s cities roam the globe on huge wheels, devouring each other in a struggle for ever diminishing resources. On one of these massive traction cities, the old London, Tom Natsworthy has an unexpected encounter with a mysterious young woman from the wastelands who will change the course of his life forever. From TMDB
193 reactions from 4 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon, TMDB reviews, Lemmy) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Oct 28, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
Sentiment labels for these sources are still being hand-checked; no score yet.
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky * | 24 | 42 | 105 |
| Mastodon * | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| TMDB reviews * | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 4 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
84 archived X posts (Mar–Apr 2026) are kept for the record and not used.
What people are saying
A written summary appears once the title has a score.
Critics, per Wikipedia
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 189 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Mortal Engines has no shortage of eye-catching special effects, but lacks enough high-octane narrative fuel to give this futuristic fantasy sufficient cinematic combustion." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 66% of filmgoers gave it a positive score. The Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw gave the film 2/5…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 193 · most liked firstConcept for Mortal Engines movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Some Shrike concepts what I did for Mortal Engines movie
neutral · AI labelView post →London concept sketch what I did for Mortal Engines movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Salthook concepts for Mortal Engines movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Early concept art of ‘London’ for the Mortal Engines movie. (There’s a reason I don’t do a lot of photobashing 😬)
neutral · AI labelView post →Another sketch for Mortal Engines movie. London interior, elevator foyer
neutral · AI labelView post →Ship shapes for Mortal Engines movie 🎈
neutral · AI labelView post →More sketches for Mortal Engines movie - Trading Cluster
neutral · AI labelView post →I think everybody had the exact same thought when the "Mortal Engines" movie came out, something like "I don't wanna watch that, I wanna PLAY that." Welp: pleased to report someone followed through on it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1e-...
neutral · AI labelView post →Love might be a BIT too strong of a word but Mortal Engines is one third of an absolutely sick movie about a bunch of steampunk POC fighter pilots going to war against British imperialism made manifest and then the rest of the movie is about two white people who suck Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
neutral · AI labelView post →Name a movie that flopped at the box office but is actually great. #FilmSky Mortal Engines. Don’t @ me. It deserved a sequel. I wanted to see more flying steampunk villages and crawling, fighting cities of creaky metal.
positive · AI labelView post →Far enough into Mortal Engines that the movie hasn't wasted its potential yet, and I'm enjoying that the villains are effectively the entire city of London, but I can FEEL the ways they're going to fumble this starting to creep in and hoping it's not true
neutral · AI labelView post →this week on the noclip_2cast we discuss Polish vampire games, a new "Rim-like" and a game that reminds Danny of that weird Mortal Engines film. Also with Frank away we invited @thejenna.bsky.social back to regale us with stories of PAX. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R4P...
neutral · AI labelView post →You know a movie is bad when no is talking about it online after it's out. Famous examples: Mortal Engines (2018) and Mortal Kombat (2026). You could tell me they never ended up coming out, and I'd believe you.
negative · AI labelView post →It continues to amuse me that they changed the ending of Mortal Engines in the terrible film in a way which would have made it impossible to adapt any of the other books. They knew they weren’t up to it.
negative · AI labelView post →I was half watching Misery in the den but I got overruled and they put on Mortal Engines. How is that more of a Christmas movie than Misery. C'mon man.
neutral · AI labelView post →Post-Apocalyptic Family Fun Film Fest: Mad Max: Road Warrior Cars Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome Cars 2 Mad Max: Fury Road Cars 3 Furiosa: a Mad Max Story Mortal Engines
neutral · AI labelView post →Indeed. It’s far from the only reason the film adaptation didn’t work but Mortal Engines is IMV a classic example of “children’s book that you can’t adapt without changing it into a film for adults”.
neutral · AI labelView post →LRT: I know Mortal Engines got a movie, but the fact that Walz has read *all four books* to me counts as a deep cut?!?! Also that he reads YA with his kids. 😮💨🤌
neutral · AI labelView post →Simultaneously, it inspired the Mortal Engines movie.
neutral · AI labelView post →This week's new SFE entries can be found here: sf-encyclopedia.com/whatsnew.php with films 'Star Trek Beyond' (2016); 'Self/less' (2015); 'Passengers' (2016); 'Mortal Engines' (2018); 'Justice League' (2017); 'Independence Day: Resurgence' (2016); 'The 5th Wave' (2016); '400 Days' (2015) ... [tbc]
neutral · AI labelView post →This Friday, a theatre in London will host a screening of Mortal Engines followed by a Q&A with author Philip Reeve. The event coincides with the release of a new prequel, and as the author celebrates the 25th anniversary of the original novel. #steampunk steampunk-explorer.com/news/philip-...
neutral · AI labelView post →There’s a terrific Studio Ghibli film to be made of Mortal Engines, rather than a very very bad Peter Jackson movie.
negative · AI labelView post →“Mortal Engines” is another example of this - there has never, ever been a point where you could make Hester’s scar work in a film targeted at the audience of the books, so you shouldn’t try. Don’t have a dinky and cool-looking scar but have everyone act like it is huge and horrific.
negative · AI labelView post →Great 30-min interview with author and filmmaker Philip Reeve by John Tomkins about Mortal Engines, Gwenevere and the creative process behind them: youtu.be/FL515bao4qg?... #MortalEngines #Gwenevere @philipreeve.bsky.social
neutral · AI labelView post →Any Blooskiers In the Torbay area? I’m screening my little movie at Torquay Museum on 4th Nov, and talking about books and Mortal Engines too. www.facebook.com/events/15914...
neutral · AI labelView post →I loved Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series, so when I heard Peter Jackson was doing the film, I was delighted. No better man for the job. I was a bit disappointed with the final result, as I found the script pretty clunky. But it's still visually stunning, and I've warmed to it on rewatches. 1/3
neutral · AI labelView post →Mortal Engines is such a weird film, I’ve never seen a movie that’s made entirely of obvious metaphors have so little to say about anything.
negative · AI labelView post →Mortal Engines was not a *great* movie, but they got one detail about archeology exactly right, which is that Minions were a revered deity in the pre-Crisis American pantheon
neutral · AI labelView post →For those who love STEAMPUNK, there's a movie on Prime you'll want to check out: Mortal Engines >> Prime Video! watch.amazon.com/detail?gti=a...
neutral · AI labelView post →Out of idle boredom and cause I liked the books as a kid i watch The Mortal Engines movie. Good lord what a load of trash! A real low
negative · AI labelView post →i still can't believe they spent 100 million dollars to make a fuckin *MORTAL ENGINES* movie (it's my favorite book series)
neutral · AI labelView post →I watched Mortal Engines for the first time last night. The first 40 minutes were really well done, then it went "How did you find me?" "So the movie can happen!" for ages But it did give me an aerial battle that the new Star Wars movies didn't in the whole trilogy soooo....
neutral · AI labelView post →Red Sonja (2025) official trailer. Trailer for the new _Red Sonja_ (2025), starring Matilda Lutz (Revenge, Rings), Robert Sheehan (Misfits, Mortal Engines) and Rhona Mitra (Doomsday, Shooter), and directed by M.J. Bassett (Deathwatch, Solomon Kane) - [YouTube trailer](https://youtu.be/Bbl_SlaRuk4) - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sonja_(2025_film)) - [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800175/)
neutral · AI labelView post →FilmSky 🎥 🎬 📽 Mortal Engines (2018) When a fantasy movie is improved simply by having Regé-Jean Page walk onscreen
neutral · AI labelView post →Watched Mortal Engines (still need to read the books). They wanted to do a star wars film. Hester and Not Stanley (from Going Postal) somehow love each other despite not having five minutes to chat, and the ending was a cop out with little to no sense. THE WEAPON IS OVERLOADING - nothing happens 😒
negative · AI labelView post →It's time to watch a trashy movie. Do I watch Mortal Engines, about a hellscape of giant cities roaming about on wheels or Glorious, about a glory hole leading to an alternate dimension.
neutral · AI labelView post →Mortal Engines could have definitely been a really great movie if they had completely cut Tom out of it. I'm not even joking when I say I genuinely would think very very highly of this movie and absolutely would read the books if not for him and the INCREDIBLY forced romance
neutral · AI labelView post →There were plenty of movies that had a great concept, but the movie sucked. Like Downsizing, Mortal Engines, or Gods of Egypt. Any sci-fi from the 70s-80s where special effects are comically bad (The Last Starfighter). The problem is they would do horrible casting that didn't fit the roles now.
neutral · AI labelView post →The costumes were created by the legendary New Zealand designer, Kate Hawley, who won an Oscar for her work in the film. Hawley is also known for her outstanding work in films such as 2015's "Crimson Peak" (for which she also won an Oscar) & 2018's "Mortal Engines".
neutral · AI labelView post →A movie I saw as a kid about the lives of a few people living on huge metal cities that were mobile, roaming the dried, decayed Earth on treads, occasionally sparring other cities that got too close like rival ships. There was an overhead scene of two kids running down a path near the edge, before chasing each other back into the buildings. Think Mortal Engines. Except where Mortal Engines was released in 2018, I watched this movie when I was in my early teens at the latest. Before 2010.…
neutral · AI labelView post →I remember the Mortal Engines promo material made a big thing of calling it "a Peter Jackson film", clearly with the intent of giving some people the false impression that Jackson was the director rather than the producer...
neutral · AI labelView post →I am making the goddamn Mortal Engines series because they FUCKED up that movie and I will be mad about it forever
negative · AI labelView post →Ever read the Mortal Engines books? or see the film. He's going to five every town and city with wheels and drive it towards Strasbourg
neutral · AI labelView post →horrowfide is watching an movie called Mortal Engines by the guy who made them really long films about the gnomes. #horrowfilms 🎥 🎬
neutral · AI labelView post →Elliot tells me that the movie was Mortal Engines.
neutral · AI labelView post →Looks awesome dude, he looked great in the film! 😍 I'd -love- to see more media exploration of the Mortal Engines universe. The books were so damn good! I think they absolutely have enough content to warrant a TV show tbh, and I'll wish for that as long as its led by decent showrunners. 😌
neutral · AI labelView post →The Mortal Engines Quartet by Philip Reeve. Don’t be put off by the terrible film - the books are very good indeed. And it’s rare to have such a deeply amoral female protagonist.
neutral · AI labelView post →Nice work, sir! I'm damned if I know why 'Mortal Engines' film took such a panning. As an old sci/fi (fantasy)enthusiast, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was certainly better than a lot of the celluloid bacteria that has disgraced our screens.
positive · AI labelView post →Something I liked about Mortal Engines (bad movie based on a great book) is that they assumed that the Minions were gods of the ancients. ( It was Mickey Mouse and Pluto in the book)
neutral · AI labelView post →I'm kidding because the Australian version of Lord of the Rings is, of course, Mortal Engines. A real good movie btw.
positive · AI labelView post →@scottniswander.bsky.social @stepback.nebula.tv I submit for your question, "what killed steampunk?" The Hugo Weavings movie Mortal Engines (2018).
neutral · AI labelView post →The "Mortal Engines" film may have been mid but that scene where the historians are panicking about the safety of the American deities and then it shows they're referring to Minions was peak.
neutral · AI labelView post →I love that the Mortal Engines film adaptation ends in a way that makes adapting the second book impossible. Even they realised they had done such a bad job they wouldn't be invited back.
negative · AI labelView post →#nw Mortal Engines (2018) 🎬 #NowWatching 📽️ #filmsky 🎥 #letterboxd 🟠🟢🔵 boxd.it/fahg
neutral · AI labelView post →Anyways Mortal Engines is sure a movie that I’m watching (as I scroll on my phone)
neutral · AI labelView post →Saw that Mortal Engines movie the other day. It was... fun to look at. The world didn't make sense at all, some of the plot elements were tropey in the not so good way as presented, and sometimes felt like it was multiple competing genres trying to exist at the same time. So in the end, meh.
neutral · AI labelView post →Mortal Engines is a great read, I don't hate the film but it's not what it could have been.
neutral · AI labelView post →I remember reading the blurb for the film Mortal Engines on a plane thinking 'this all sounds a bit ridiculous' and not watching it (not having come across the blurb before). This may have been shallow of me, but I think it's right the premise does just 'feel' more implausible than Avatar etc.
negative · AI labelView post →My ★★★ review of Mortal Engines (2018) on @letterboxd: boxd.it/Fpo09
neutral · AI labelView post →
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