Mortal Engines trailer: Was Peter Jackson's return worth the wait?

With the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson forever embiggened large-scale filmmaking. Those films contained the massivest set-pieces ever seen in a movie, but Jackson and his collaborators were nevertheless able to artfully infuse them with recognisable human emotion, grounding the gargantuan storytelling like no one ever had before.

It set the stage for the subsequent large-scale storytelling in films like Pacific Rim, the Godzilla reboot and the Transformers series, but Jackson looks set to reclaim the mantle of the film world's premier purveyor of giganticness with Mortal Engines, which he wrote and is producing alongside regular collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. His longtime protegé Christian Rivers is handling directing duties.

Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape where enormous mobile cities roam the world consuming other cities, the obvious challenge with Mortal Engines is to once again bridge the gap between the epic and the intimate, and by the looks of the just-released first full trailer, the film appears well on its way to doing so.

We spend most of our time with Icelandic actor Hera Hilmar, and I'm already very invested in her character's quest for vengeance against a classically-villainous Hugo Weaving.

Misfits star Robert Sheehan (who confusingly also starred in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) appears to be the next-most-important character, and they both get flushed down a giant toilet in my absolute favourite moment of the trailer.

Indeed, all the mechanics on display in this trailer are dizzyingly impressive, and slick enough to avoid the dreaded steampunk label, despite a bowler hat or two showing up.

I am a sucker for anything massive, and this trailer contains some of the massivest things I've ever seen. But again, the personal stakes are emphasised, which bodes well for the finished product.

There's plenty to behold in the trailer beyond the "traction cities" as they are known, with a lot of the latter parts taking place up in the sky. That stuff looks amazing.

My only complaint may be that the trailer ends on a somewhat anti-climactic note. But I suppose I should be grateful they didn't just pummel us with more money shots.

I couldn't spot South African-born Kiwi actor Caren Pistorious (Slow West, Cargo), who apparently plays a major character, but it was nice to see rising Samoan/Kiwi star Frankie Adams (The Expanse) show up in a wide hero shot towards the end.

No sign yet either of Joel Tobeck, who according to IMDB plays someone called "Bürgermeister", but I suppose they have to hold something back for the actual movie. Please let him be someone who makes burgers. Bring on December!