City of Ember
World events send people scurrying into underground shelters and decades later their descendents must find a way to survive or leave the protection of the City of Ember.
Film making 18/25
Cinematography 18/25
Audio 1/25
Bonus Features 0/25
Total 54/100
While the movies screenplay was probably good the movie itself just does not come together well in the end, City of Ember is about the survivors of a world calamity and how they must leave their decaying city. The Builders designed and prepared the City of Ember for life underground for 200 years and even left a box with instructions and keys to leave when those years were over.
They do not specify the disaster that befell the world though it’s pretty easy to imagine, nor do they give an explanation behind losing the mayor who held the box containing the instructions and keys to get out. This was probably the most disappointing part of the movie, why did someone kill the mayor who held the all important box that held the secret to leaving and left it in a closet for an ancestor to find years later.
After the opening scene of passing the box along and seeing the supposed killing of the mayor we see the box shoved into a closet and then move on to job appointment day for youngsters of the City of Ember. Harry Treadaway plays Doon Harrow and Saoirse Ronin plays Lina Mayfleet, two twelve year olds who just found out they work in adult jobs in a city that is falling apart.
Lina is a messenger that gives verbal messages since the telephone system has failed and Doon is a pipe works engineer, not the job he wanted. Doon was hoping to work on the failing generator believing his skill taught to him by his father would aid the engineers in fixing the failing generator.
When Doon tries to find out more about the generator he is snubbed and sneaks around trying to find a way into it after finding all routes blocked only to generator engineers. He finds something else though, a small room that is locked which he eventually opens to finds shelves of canned food and a comfortable chair inside.
The food is a mystery as most canned goods have long since been eaten, or so the town city has been told by their overweight Mayor Cole played by Bill Murray. Kind of obvious when you see the rest of the city scrounging to find enough food for themselves and they made Mayor Cole a pot bellied politician.
Mayor Cole tells everyone that everything will be alright after several blackouts that are becoming more frequent and longer due to the generator breaking down. The two young workers have stumbled onto more clues that something is up when Linas sister finds the box in her grandmothers closet and opens it when it has counted down to the 200 year mark.
Lina finds a decaying note partly chewed by her young sister and a plastic object that she eventually deduces is a key. She is questioned about several matters by the Mayor when both youngsters are found snooping around parts of town and the Mayor has been given a message by Lina about his ship coming in from a town storage worker who has been hording food for the mayor.
The mayor knows something is up with the two when he figures out who Lina is, her grandfather was a mayor in the past and her father was killed in an accident. Her father drowned when trying to follow an escape route out of the city but the kids have stumbled onto the note and figure out how to leave.
The Mayor also finds out something is up and before the kids can figure out how to leave he talks with Lina and threatens her where she yanks the key off the chain around his neck. She had recognized the key hanging from his neck as the same one that was in the box and snatched it to run away from the mayor before he could figure out what the two kids are up to.
Using the two keys that combined to make the key to start the sequence of mechanisms to open the way out of the city the kids discover a roller coaster ride Disney would be envious of. The city is underground with the hydroelectric generator as the city’s main power source but also as the peoples way out, it will reconfigure itself when a series of levers and such are pulled in various parts of the generator area and small boats will start to move into position and fall into the river that runs the generator.
The paddle wheels that make the river flow evenly for the generator are moved out of the way to allow passage of the boats and the two kids sneak to the annual celebration to retrieve Lina’s younger sister before leaving the city. When they make it out and to the surface they think everything is the same there, dark and cold, but it is only night time and cloudy. Day break brings a gorgeous sunrise and new hope for the citizens of the City of Ember as long as Lina and Doon can tell them how to get out.
Doon and Lina toss a note down to the city tied to rock through a crevasse that opened above the decaying city and it just happens to fall down into the hands of Doon’s father. I know kind of corny but the whole movie is a bit on the lame side in the end but it does work out for the most part.
Some parts of the movie are kind of lame but the biggest part I found odd was the adults’ blind faith and unquestioning loyalty to the mayor except for a few. The adults in the City of Ember are totally oblivious to the decay going on around them and totally believe the Mayor and his song and dance of everything will be alright except for two.
Harry’s father is a strong supporter of everything going to pot but he lost his motivation when his close friend, Lina’s father died in an accident trying to escape. Other adults are totally oblivious to the city dying or how to get out and just plod along except for another friend of Lina’s that helps hide the kids and the entrance to the tunnel thought to lead out of the city.
City of Ember is definitely targeted at young kids who will find the quick heroics of the two twelve year olds a slap in the face of authority and fun. The scenery and filming is pretty good but something’s do not match with common sense so you get that feeling of things being thrown together to create a movie with a lower budget.
I did not get to review a final copy of The City of Ember so I have no idea about the bonus material on the Blu-ray or DVD copies. The City of Ember is a decent enough movie but lacking in an adult draw to make it worthwhile purchasing for adults. Kids may enjoy it enough to watch it over and over again but renting it may be worthwhile before a purchase.