Moving cities??? How does that make any sense?

It looks like a drug dream. Moving cities only makes sense when they float on water or in air, but on giant tank treads? Give me a break! And "eating other cities" to survive? Seriously?

'Traction Cities are vast metropolises built on tiers that move on gigantic wheels or caterpillar tracks. These cities hunt smaller cities (in order to tear them apart for resources and fuel) which in turn hunt towns which in turn hunt villages and static settlements. This practice is known as Municipal Darwinism, which was a philosophy created by then chief engineer of London Dr. Crumb and is based on the evolutionary theories of the ancient philosopher Charles Darwin.'

Think of Steampunk and you get this movie and/or games. They're great stuff. All about dem gears.

The idea is ludicrous. How could such places feed their populations, you can't put farms on wheels! How could they afford enough fuel to move a place that size, how could fuel be mined when oil and coal stay in one place and the population is all moving? What kind of platform do you place an entire city on that wouldn't buckle? What happens when you try to drive a city over a landscape that can't support something of that weight, like peat or limestone karst that's prone to sinkholes? How does a city on wheels cross a mountain range or a river?

Really, if anyone wanted to hide from bigger cities, all they'd have to do is live on ground that couldn't support something of that weight, or is too steep for its engines to climb.

The movie was based off a series of 4 books. The world had engaged in the 60-second war, which devastated the Earth leading to massive geological upheaval. Mountains were flattened, volcanos formed everywhere, earthquakes were common. An engineer named Nicholas Quirke (that's why the money is called Quirkes) decided the only way humanity would survive is by building massive treads under cities so that they could move around to avoid the geological events, but also take over neighbouring cities and consume what resources they had left. The whole idea of "Municipal Darwinism" where one city "eats" another is unsustainable, which led to the creation of the Anti-Traction League where permanent cities have banded together to try to get rid of the Traction Cities. Even the name indicates the current state of affairs is not sustainable, the massive city Engines are Mortal, they will die unless they can keep chasing down smaller cities and consuming them. Eventually, of course, they will run out of other cities to eat. Everyone is worried about this, but no one in the bigger cities (London) wants to do anything about it while they live on the biggest bully on the block.

It is not really meant to make sense from a "is that even possible?" point of view. You have to remember the action takes place thousands of years in the future, engines, platforms, and city-sized treads have all been made possible by advances in science. It's steampunk science fiction, you simply have to accept a few leaps of faith for the story to work. All that being said, it is just too bad that the script was so weak in the movie. It was nothing but 2 hours of old cliches, Sweet Valley High style romances, and predictable outcomes. The premise was there, it could have been so much more.

It's fantasy.

It is set in the future and the CGI and audio is superb.