From the minds behind “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogy, comes the next fantasy epic to hit the silver screens,”Mortal Engines”. Directed by Christian Rivers (whose most popular credit prior to “Mortal Engines” is being an extra in “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”) and written by Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Philip Reeve, and Peter Jackson, “Mortal Engines” sees the Earth 1,000 years after the 21st century after a war that lasted 60 seconds. A world in which (very large) cities ravage across the land as mobile vehicles ingesting other cities. The premise is interesting enough and seems like “Mad Max” on steroids, but the epic spectacle is lacking in emotional investment. As the film begins an ominous, seemingly monstrous being gives a brief narration to catch us up to speed. Then begins a 5-10 minute chase sequence where Junkie XL basically parodies himself in one of the year’s most ear ripping scores. Rivaling that of whatever it is Ludwig Goransson was doing with the score in “Venom”. Boisterous score aside, the world building and general aesthetic to Earth 1,000 years in the future was quite fascinating. London is as big as it’s ever been and it dominates the land as they continuously grow their population in feeding on smaller towns roaming the Earth. What these big setpieces needed to make them even more well realized is some great characters and compelling writing. Neither of which show up and make a lasting impact. Hera Hilmar plays the film’s protagonist, Hester Shaw and Hugo Weaving makes dinosaur puns as Thaddeus Valentine. Hera doesn’t give a bad performance but she gives a performance that doesn’t make Hester unique in any way. You can anticipate the misplaced flashbacks and the dramatic tear-shed whenever she would start talking, and essentially proves that the role could have been played by anyone. Weaving on the other hand does chew some nice scenery with solid one-liners, but the character is a complete mess. Lacking in proper motivation or the steps of an arc, Thaddeus embodies every major problem with “Mortal Engines”. As the saying goes, “A film is as good as it’s antagonist,” and Thaddeus isn’t good. He is severely underwritten while simultaneously overwritten, he hams it up a bit but the direction takes it too seriously, and the characters closest in relation to him ultimately do or mean nothing in the scope of the entire picture. It runs at two hours in length, but doesn’t have enough content in it, but also needs more time to flesh out the world and it’s overstuffed cast of characters. There is an inherent basic charm built into the D.N.A. of this epic story, but Rivers doesn’t have any fun with it. There are shades of a world worth revisiting and promising subplots, but no one on this project had a grip on what they were working with. “Mortal Engines” clearly isn’t a property suited for a brisk two hour live action film. It’s a property better suited for an anime style TV show that can bring to life a relatively fascinating world in the way that it should have been. There are better films to see this Christmas season and “Mortal Engines” is making the naughty list. “Mortal Engines” gets a 30/100