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You know, sometimes I’ll explain the premise of Zombie Ranch to people and their response (for good or ill) will be, “Wow, that’s pretty bizarre.”
I can’t really argue that. Bizarre is part of the point. If we were doing just another bog-standard zombie apocalypse scenario, well… fact is we probably wouldn’t be doing this at all. As post-apocalypse settings go, the zombie option isn’t very unique in of itself.
On the other hand, if you came to me with a pitch that said, “this is a post-apocalypse world where the cities of Earth have been transformed into gigantic mobile fortresses and they rove around the wasteland eating each other for spare parts!” — that’s a more inherently unique concept. Certainly worthy of a “wow, that’s pretty bizarre.”
I’ve long been of the mindset that if you’re going to go over the same well-trodden tale in a well-trodden setting–say, a group of comrades in a fantasy world of elves, dwarves and orcs on a quest to destroy some Macguffin of evil–you better bring your storytelling A-game to the table. If you’ve got a more unique spin on things, then I’m going to cut you varying amounts of slack because you’re getting out and “swinging for the fences.” That’s an American baseball term about throwing caution to the wind and just chasing the pitch for all you’re worth… you might strike out horribly, but if you connect right you’re going to send that ball over the outfield barriers and earn yourself an automatic home run.
And in those cases you’ve got to at least respect the enthusiasm, and the fact that, yeah, gigantic mobile cities eating each other is a funkily fascinating idea to chase.
Is it going to get me out to see Mortal Engines in a theater? Probably not, because movies are frickin’ expensive these days. But again, a certain amount of respect even if it ends up in execution as total cheese (or worse, mediocrity).
Here’s the trailer, by the way, if y’all ain’t seen it yet. You decide.