Much like the toasters, smartphones, and dystopian fiction, and “strong female characters” were little more than toughened blank slates. Mortal Engines might take place thousands of years in the future, but it’s a movie that’s stuck in the past.
Hugo Weaving was a great Nazi in Captain America: The First Avenger, playing Cap’s nemesis, Red Skull. And given that it was a comic book movie, meaning time and space are fluid — and given that any non-Loki villain has failed to really capture people’s attention — it’s natural to…