A massive city, with St. Paul’s Cathedral sitting in its center, rolls toward them:
Another, even more massive and stylish city rolls into view, the Eiffel Tower perched on top:
A huge city, crowned by the Colosseum, appears over a hill. It rumbles forward for a couple hundred yards, then wheezes to a sputtering halt.
Thanks, I needed that! Plus, half the office is out on vacation, I can swap out my coffee-soaked keyboard at will.
Seriously, though - you can extract a good science fiction story from the concept of giant, city-sized vehicles roaming the surface of a ravaged planet. The problem here, though is (a) that they’re actually called “cities”; (b) that they’re actual Earth cities; and © that they feature landmarks from those cities. That is a deeply silly conceit, and it only could have worked if the filmmakers had decided to lean in on the surrealism and produce something like a live-action Miazaki film; instead, it seems as though the movie hit that special sour spot (the opposite of a sweet spot, natch), where it was both too silly AND not silly enough.
Besides, let’s face it: London is not that intimidating a city. The moment it appeared in the first trailer, all I could think was, “Ooh, what are they going to do - poke us with their umbrellas? Pelt us with fish and chips? Throw a Beefeater at us?”
Been there, done that. Now I won’t have to bother seeing the damn movie.
Looks like a video game. Literally. Gonna pass.
Consume you in its insatiable maw, of course.
The portrayal in the books is pure steampunk, with ravening cities on massive tank treads churning up the mud of dried seabeds and landscapes of a post-apocalyptic Europe. Cities range from tiny to far larger than London, and it ought to have been compelling in a visual medium. Too bad they screwed it up.
Also, throughout the main four-book series it is made clear that this pseudo-Darwinian traction city model is destructive and unsustainable, a problem which drives many of the larger-scale events.
Honestly, it just looks bad from the trailer. The acting seemed flat. Too much CGI. Basically the director of bloated Hobbit films trying to kick off a new YA dystopian sci fi franchise after I thought the age of YA dystopian sci franchises ended with the last Maze Runner film.
I really feel like an opportunity was missed here - we have this gonzo sci-fi involving giant cities on wheels. And then they don’t even bother showing a single fight between two cities that are of even remotely similar size? Or even a single fight that isn’t “city vs. other city so large that it can easily consume them whole”? Fuckin’ robbed.
Why can’t anyone seem to make a decent live-action steampunk movie?
The genre seems so interesting and perfect for the capabilities of today’s CGI that I can’t believe every movie that’s tried ends up as a disaster.
Wild Wild West- 17% rotten tomatoes
Golden Compass- 42%
Van Helsing- 24%
League of Ext Gentlemen- 17%
Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter- 35%
City of Ember- 53%
The last good steampunk movie was the foreign made City of Lost Children.
Steamboy was great, but that’s anime so it doesn’t count as live action…
How about the first Guy Richie Sherlock Holmes movie? (70%)
I actually enjoyed Wild Wild West and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, silly as they were. Van Helsing was a disappointment; haven’t seen the other three.
Because steampunk is, at best, just a look and nothing more, IMO. Any further than a fashion statement, and it’s just stupid as hell.
The Miyazaki film Laputa: Castle in the Sky has a strong steampunk vibe, and is excellent IMHO: - YouTube
Steampunk, IMHO, works better as a subset of fantasy than of science fiction. Instead of trying to figure out how all this stuff can actually work - it’s can’t - just take a sword-and-sorcery world and add some brass pipes and big-ass gears.
Examples of good fantasy-based Steampunk: Avatar: the Last Airbender and* the Legend of Korra* (although the latter is technically Dieselpunk).
Hugo is 94% on RT, won 5 Oscars and a Golden Globe Best Director.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954 - 89% on RT.
OG Steampunk.
Late to the party, but I did see it yesterday. I have read all four original books as well. My thoughts:
Uh, it was actually pretty good. Not totally perfect, not as good as it could be, but this was a really well made movie and I think they did a decent job. I get some of the changes they made from the book, though some decisions were ridiculous(The Minions got an audible groan).
I liked it, though, and I think that Philip Reeves could at least see the movie and not feel like they screwed it up big time.
Honest Trailers just did one for this movie that kinda makes it worth making the movie, sorta. 