For centuries, the residents of the underground City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights and quiet contentment. But when the City's massive power generator begins to fail, the street lamps start to fade-- along with the hope and dreams of the 
townspeople. now it's up to two courageous teenagers to follow a trail of clues left by the ancient Builders and find a way out of Ember before their world is plunged into darkness forever.~~From the DVD backThe world was being destroyed. A group of people got together and decided to build an entire self-sustaining city underground. This city would last for 200 years. By then the world above would be ready to accept people back to it. With that idea they send a box down with the first mayor set to open in 200 years. The box is passed from mayor to mayor, until one mayor dies without passing on the box. It becomes lost and forgotten in a closet in the Mayfleet house.
Over 200 years later, the box has quietly opened unnoticed and now the City of Ember is dying. The generator, the only source of power and electricity, is shutting down. Food is getting scarce. In fact the citizens of Ember are looking at a black future with no food.
In the City of Ember, once you reach a certain age you attend Assignment Day. There you will draw out of a bag what you will spend the rest of your life working on. Doon is desperate to work in the generator because he thinks he can fix it. Lina just wants to stay "above ground". When Lina picks "pipeworks" and Doon picks "messenger" both are extremely disappointed. So they switch. Lina gets to run through the city meeting many different people. Doon gets to be close to the generator even if he isn't in it.
One day Lina discovers a box in her grandmother's appartment with what looks like a message inside, but it isn't until she deciphers the word "pipeworks" that she brings it to Doon to look at. Doon discovers the word "exit" on the paper. They both begin to think that there might be a way out of Ember.
As they are trying to piece together what the message is, they stumble across the Mayor's secret chamber where he has hidden food and drink enough to feed several families for weeks. Lina goes to the person she believes she can trust, only to discover that they are in on the secret.
Now with a price on their heads, Lina and Doon are frantic to find a way out: before the lights go out, before the food runs out, before they are caught.
Now the analysis:
Rating:
PG for "mild peril and some thematic elements"
Language:
None that I can remember
Immorality:
None
Pros:
Throughout the movie, Doon's father consistanly imparts his wisdom to his son. In a world where the people have obviously stopped passing knowledge on (no one knows how to fix the generator) this is a good and comforting thing. (I'll mention Doon's reaction later)
Lina, the main female character, lost her parents a number of years before. She now lives with her granny and little sister, Poppy. She is very kind and patient and gentle with them both. She doesn't get upset with her granny even when she's obviously not thinking right and tearing up the couch. When her granny dies, Lina and Poppy go to live with their neighbor. Lina continues to take care of Poppy. She watches out for her and makes sure she is safe. When Lina and Doon decide to try to escape, Lina risks being caught and goes back to get Poppy to bring her with them.
Early in the movie Doon shows his care for animals when he finds a moth with a torn wing and uses his shoelace to patch it up and watch it fly away. (Incidently this occurance also causes him to begin to question where it came from.)
At the end of the movie as Doon and Lina are trying to escape, they discover that the water wheels have been stiff for so long that they no longer work properly. Sul, the man Doon works for in the pipeworks, risks (and looses) his life to let them try to escape.
Lina and Doon really learn to work together to solve the mystery of the "message". They listen to each other and put their thought together to learn the important truth about the exit.
Faith is one of the "hidden" messages in the movie. Mrs. Murdo, the lady that Lina and Poppy go to live with after Granny dies, is constantly reminding Lina that the builders knew what they were doing, and would take care of them. At the time, Lina shrugs it off and the thought isn't really brought up again in the movie, but we find out that the Builders did indeed take care of them and it was the carelessness of others that prevented their help from arriving on time.
This might sound like a silly "pro", but in this movie, the robots are just robots. Not trusted family friends, or sassy housekeepers, or machinery that have taken on a life of their own, but just robots. I really do like this aspect as it shows what robots are....machines.
Cons:
The biggest problem with this movie is Doon's attitude. While his father gives him pieces of wisdom, Doon treats it like "just an old guy talking". He is sulky and upset. He blameshifts this attitude on the fact that the city if falling apart and he could help if someone would let him. But that all is it, blameshifting. He has an almost constant attitude of "I know better than you" to his dad and at first scorns the gift his dad gives him as useless.
During the course of the story, you find out that Doon's dad had been a part of an escape attempt. He gave it up when one of his friends died. Now he wants no part with escape talk. He doesn't take initiative to follow what his son tells him he's found out. He's scared to try again. He does redeem himself by drawing the soldiers who come to capture Doon away so Doon can escape and by telling him to follow whatever evidence he has about an escape route.
Much of the story would be classified as Fatalistic. Everything from "You don't have a choice in what you're going to do in life, you just have to follow what's given you" to "Trust the Builders, they know what they were doing, and it will all turn out right." In fact one of Lina's good adult friends tells her, "Don't dig too deep, Lina." All the Emberites just follow what those before them have done and don't try to change anything. Doon's mentor in the Pipeworks keeps answering Doon's questions about how things work with, "I don't know, it's not my job!" Doon and Lina do break this mold in their adventure, but everyone around them is stuck in the "It's fate, don't fight it" mentality.
Another big problem with the movie is the portrayal of authority. We find out pretty early on that the mayor isn't really interested in the people he governs, but is concerned with himself. That's only the beginning of the conspiracy in the government. This government is painted as not being able to competantly rule, but self-centered.
Cinematography:
First of all, let me say that I am not a cinematographer and I'm only going to give my impressions of what I like. One thing that I really appreciate in a movie is when I view it multiple times (and I view most movies multiple time) I can see something new each time. So some things that I've notice after a few viewings:
~In the beginning the hands of the mayors get older as they pass the box on
~You can see Granny knitting as a little girl
~The dark bag that they draw their jobs out of
~In the pictures on the wall in the mayor's hall, you can see some of those who were in the beginning scene.
Well, there you have it. The City of Ember is only the first in a series of books (to read my review of the book click here) and I will be very interested to find out if they plan on making more of the books into movies.
Have you seen this movie? What did you think?
Tiffany
