Culture news This sci-fi film which cost +$100 million was a resounding failure at the cinema: it is available for free for a few more days on TF1+

Culture news This sci-fi film which cost +$100 million was a resounding failure at the cinema: it is available for free for a few more days on TF1+

Mortal Engines, does that mean anything to you? It’s a feature film directed by Christian Rivers, one of Peter Jackson’s close collaborators (the father of the Lord Rings and The Hobbit films). His thing is special effects! Rivers also won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on King Kong (2005). But, Mortal Engines was on paper the ideal project for the VFX pro to get behind the camera. “The world (of the film) cannot be created without a lot of work on visual effects”, explains the man in 2018, in the solonnes of Ciné Télé & Co. “So my background in special effects is very useful.” The action of his feature film takes place on Earth after a nuclear holocaust. Cities are now gigantic machines, which only want to absorb those smaller than themselves in a sort of urban food chain! In all this, Thaddeus Valentine, right-hand man of the Mayor of London, wants at all costs to find a new source of energy – but young Hester Shaw wants him dead.

A box office failure

Despite a fairly original pitch – taken from the eponymous novel by Philip Reeve – and a riot of visual effects, Mortal Engines did not receive praise from the press (28% from Rotten Tomatoes, 3.1 on Allociné ). Worse, when it was released in 2018, it was a box office failure. On an estimated budget of 100 million dollars, the film only grossed 83 million worldwide. He is particularly criticized for his overly obvious inspirations, such as Star Wars, behind which he hides. However, its special effects, Rivers’ specialty, are praised.

It’s available on TF1+

Does this intrigue you? Well, Mortal Engines is now available on TF1+, the free SVOD platform of the famous French television channel. On the other hand, act quickly, you only have four days left to enjoy the feature film ! Obviously, the latter should disappear from the catalog on Monday October 7. If you miss the boat, don’t worry: you can still find Mortal Engines on Amazon Prime Video or via Apple TV.