City of Ember – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jan 20, 2009, 12:49 GMT

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 ...more

“Ours is the only light in a dark world.”

Based on the books by Jeanne Duprau, this fantastic film failed to light up the box office.  It’s not for want of trying as this film hit all the right notes for me and I had a fantastic time in the underground city.  

In the far distant future a climatic event threatens the solvency of mankind.  So a group of intellectuals decide to build an underground city to preserve mankind until the calamity has passed.  They figure it will take 200 years until the surface of the earth is inhabitable again. 

They give the mayor of the city a sealed box with instruction on how to leave the city and set the timer for 200 years.  It is passed on from mayor to mayor until one of the mayors dies in office and the box is forgotten.  The 200 years are up but the box has been long forgotten. 

The city of Ember is dying though as the complex’s generator is in disrepair.  The citizenry only knows how to make makeshift repairs and patches to their city and their lack of skills has taken its toll. 

The current mayor, Mayor Cole (Bill Murray), is going through the governmental traditions and is assigning jobs to a graduating class of young teens.  One of those teens, Doon (Harry Treadaway), wants to be assigned a job in the generator because he thinks he can finally fix it.  As time has gone on the power outages are getting longer and longer and there are fears that the next one will be the last light the citizens of Ember will see. 

Since Doon’s father Loris (Tim Robbins) is an inventor he thinks that he has the proper upbringing and creativity to finally fix the generator.  Lina (Saorise Ronan) is a descendant of one of the last mayors to possess the box and lives with her grandmother (Liz Smith), who suffers from dementia, and her little sister Poppy (Amy Quinn). 

On the day of the job assignment Doon is made a messenger, a runner who delivers messages since the phone system stopped functioning long ago, and Lina is assigned to the pipeworks.  Doon is devastated since he considers a messenger pretty useless so Lina switches with him.  Doon is under the tutelage of the elderly Sul (Martin Landau) and soon discovers that the generator is so patched and poorly maintained that it is beyond repair. 

Lina soon discovers her ancestor’s charge to lead the people out of Ember, but runs afoul of the corrupt mayor.  So she and Doon must figure out the clues left behind by the Builders and discover the way out of the fading city.  

Sadly box office figures probably mean that the second novel of Duprau’s, The People of Sparks, might not see the light of day being made into a film.  That’s a crying shame as The City of Ember was a fantastic family film.  The film is a satisfying journey, though I’d love to see what happens to the residents of Ember after they leave the city as told in People of Sparks. 

Perhaps it was that a lot of plot devices were left to the imagination and we’re completely lacking in that these days.  We’re not really told what the catastrophe that drives humanity underground is (I’m guessing a war of some kind, but I guess you could also speculate the cause celeb of the moment, global warming, if you want to). 

It could also be that Bill Murray and Tim Robbins are given ample screen time in the trailer, but really only do enough work to be cameos. 

Whatever the case, Ember is a city that will hopefully find its audience on home video.  My family was enchanted with the tale and the two young stars are great in their roles. 

The ending does play out like somebody was hoping to make “Ember: The Amusement Park Ride” but it was still thrilling! (as the Builders also seemed to like to put exclamation points at the end of their sentences too!). 

In a film landscape sometimes devoid of family fun I found Ember a city well worth visiting and wished we’d have had some special features that detailed the production and sets (more on that later).  Maybe if Ember finds its audience on home video we might get to see what happens to the denizens of humanity’s last outpost when they reclaim the surface world.  

The City of Ember is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions on one side and fullscreen on the other.  Special features include trailers for other Fox releases, but not one for the film itself. 

That’s sad since the city was a fantastic set that I would’ve liked to have gotten more information on or even have heard from the director.  Alas, that sad box office take probably scuttled any special features that might’ve been considered.  

The City of Ember is a fantastic ride that the whole family can go on.  It goes a little “Goonies” at the end, but fans of that film (and I count myself one) should be happy.  Fantastic performances by the young leads make up for the cameos of the big stars and I hope that we get the chance to catch another glimpse into the world of Jeanne Duprau again one day and hopefully not in 200 years.  

The City of Ember is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Feb. 23rd release. Visit the DVD database for more information.