City of Ember

2008 • 95 minuter

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For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing... and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, two teenagers in a race against time, must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, and help the citizens escape before the lights go out forever.

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From the producers of The Ant Bully, and the director of Monster House, comes a sci-fi fantasy adventure that takes place in the city of ember. So, did I expect this will be an edge-of-your-seat adventure ride that will thrill me and engross me? No! I am disappointed. Even though the movie seemed interesting by itself, This is a cursory, hasty, thin, slim story with miniscule development. There is no detail, no surprise, and no development within the story, there is nothing to it. Almost every character is very hollow and blank. The two main characters (Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow) do care for each other and work as a team, but they don't have a sense of emotional depth and chemistry, they have no layers, and they don't have as much character development as the 3 young characters from "monster house," or even the Baudelaire siblings from "Lemony Snicket: a series of unfortunate events." Even the deceitful mayor played by Bill Murray is not interesting, because the mayor doesn't bring any strong tension, and like all of the characters, he is just relatively dull, but I only chuckled once at his one-liner and that one-liner is forgettable. All of the characters have very little or no information and no depth and have a little something to contribute to the story. The direction by Gil Kenan (director of monster house) did not bring anything robust or remarkable, like how he directed monster house, the direction that he did here is just simplistic and doesn't have any rich flavor (there is nothing to it). There are a few moments where the screenplay is choppy, because the camera just cuts to the next shot and will not let one particular shot flow before the next shot. Sure, there are a few redeemable qualities: The acting from the cast was a good enough effort to make these characters believable. The production design makes the look of ember a very magical and exotic world. The only action sequence that does look fun is the scene that looks like a water slide in the cave and the pacing and movement of this ride is very fast, but the rest of the action is lacking, (nothing but a bunch of chases and running), the special effects are very good, including the unusually supernatural sized creatures like the cute and gentle moth and the monstrous man-eating star-nosed mole. The score by Andrew Lockington is grand and sprightly, as his score emphasizes the action and adventure of the film, and unlike most film composers that did scores for action adventures, Andrew is the composer that can make an epic score that remains very consistent with impressive full-bodied flavor and a strong sense of ambition that he provides to his scores for those kinds of movies. The pacing is very well paced and there is not much to say about it (that's just it). To conclude: City of Ember is cursory and paper-thin with minuscule development in the story and characters and the genre that it lacks a little is action and adventure. I'm sure that this film would entertain end enthrall someone else, but it did not do it for me (I was not entertained by this film).

I HATE this movie more than the Percy Jackson movies or even The Last Airbender! In the trailer they give away the plot twist at the end of the book in the first few seconds! None of the actors have personality and the movie decides to completely ruin any sort of relation to the plot by adding things like giant mole-monsters and secret telephone messages!!! Oh, and by the way, the job of one of the main characters is messenger, someone who runs across the city to deliver messages to people by voice. They never had phones! The only thing that is remotely good about the movie, the city itself, is still hugely flawed! Why is everyone wearing strange clothing? Why is the lighting not match the gritty, electrical feel of the city, and instead looks like broad daylight? Why is everything cramped? (Yeah I know, that whole "underground" thing, but in the book, you are not suppose to know it's underground, so it is described as a large, wide open city. This ruins the whole effect! I have written a longer rant on this horrible film's youtube page. But to attempt to summarize. THIS IS THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!

For a lover of the book this film adaption was just mediocre. It lacked several key aspects of the plot and ultimately failed to present. On the other hand though it was good by standing out by itself. It showed its own twist which I liked, not to mention the soundtrack is 5 stars. If you haven't read the book watch this then read the book. Overall, this movie was great but was far to different from the book. Despite the unfaithfulness it really did do well for a 90 minute movie.