City Of Ember Movie
| Resolution | Size | Download | ||
|
1920x800 | 8137.42 MiB | 1080p | |
|
1280x528 | 4459.87 MiB | 720p | |
|
696x288 | 702.17 MiB | divx | |
|
348x144 | 367.84 MiB | ipod | |
Storyline
TAGLINES
Discover The Secret
Escape Is The Only Option
Lights out.
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.
| David Ryall | Chief Builder |
| Ian McElhinney | Builder #2 |
| Harry Treadaway | Doon Harrow |
| Tim Robbins | Loris Harrow |
| Bill Murray | Mayor Cole |
| B.J. Hogg | Mayor's Guard |
| Toby Jones | Barton Snode |
| Lucinda Dryzek | Lizzie Bisco |
| Matt Jessup | Joss |
| Lara McIvor | Roner |
| Myles Thompson | Smat |
| Eoin McAndrew | Student #1 |
| Rachel Morton | Student #2 |
| Conor MacNeill | Student #3 |
| Lorraine Hilton | Miss Thorn |
| Gil Kenan |
7.00 out of 10 (743 votes)
Visitor Reviews
it's not a horrible movie. Just a bland one.
posted on 02 Aug 2009City of Ember is one of those films that had some potential and some good initiative but ultimately succumbed to the fact that it was poorly-written, poorly-directed and resulted in being flat-out boring. The film tells the story of an unspecified moment in the future of humankind, where a few hundred people move underground and construct a subterranean city and after a while, their power supply is beginning to fail and two young children must seek the way back to the surface, which, for some reason, is forbidden.It's based on a book by Jeanne Duprau, and while I have not actually read it myself, I can tell there was a lot of imperative material left out when they adapted its content into a script, resulting in many glaring plot holes and enormous questions that do not get answered for us at any moment during the film's running time, which is considerably longer than it needs to be.According to one of my peers, in the book, it describes that humankind becomes locked in an intercontinental war and is quickly wiping out all life on the planet. This is the reason why the small number of people construct a giant city underground. In the movie, there is no explanation and so it seems to us that they just decided to build the City of Ember just for the experience.Visually, City of Ember is an acceptable accomplishment. There are some nice special effects sequences—excluding this gigantic, over-sized star-nosed mole that serves as one of the film's boring antagonists. The city's name is clear in its appearance. It glows an attractive ember-like color. The streets are dirty, the people are often unwashed, and their living conditions are by our standards, deplorable. So the filmmakers accomplished their task at making a convincing looking, end-of-the-world city.What they did not succeed in was using this set and its characters to keep us entertained or even generally interested. The film did not spark any interest for me. I was yawning twenty minutes into the film and I did not stop until the credits began to roll. The characters are all typical, two-dimensional figures who simply exist to fill up screen time and move the dull plot along toward the ending. It's a shame, for there are some great actors, including a few favorites of mine. But they're all boring characters. Bill Murray, commonly an interesting actor, was rather boring as the movie's major villain. Tim Robbins, one of my favorite actors, really served no purpose and thus his presence was nothing more than an unnoticed luxury. Probably the best character is Martin Landau's and he's only on screen for about fifteen minutes or so. And keep in mind, this is a movie that relies on its characters to keep moving. And so, if the characters are bland, the movie is bland.And that describes the film entire. It's not a horrible movie in any regards. It's just a bland one. And bland films don't entertain.
A near miss...
posted on 02 Aug 2009This review discusses the movie, not the novel. The film is a delightful, if contrived, fairytale littered with predictable characters and an easily anticipated ending. A naive freshness runs through the story, with high-level corruption limited to stealing sardines. One sees many metaphor opportunities that the director opted to imply rather than explore. A number of pointless action scenes would have been better left on the editing floor. This is a sweet film with unrealized narrative potential. One wishes the director had banged the script through the keyboard a few more times and moved the irrelevant mole to a different film. (This is not a Bill Murray comedy.) If one enjoys fairy tales, this film is worth a view.
Good movie if you have not read the book.
posted on 31 Jul 2009I thought this was a good movie. The acting all around was reasonably good and the plot and content was kid friendly without being pandering and weak soup. The special effects were well done and the set had a great Steam Punk-ish feel to it. You could tell there was a lot of thought that went into making the set feel lived-in (it reminded me a good bit of the sets used in the series Firefly.I plan to read the book and I expect it will be better than the movie. I'm not sure if I would buy this movie on DVD but it got me thinking I would LOVE to see something like this done on a bigger scale or even as a TV series.
Okay -- Could have been and should have been better
posted on 27 Jul 2009Read the review at the address below. Might contain some mild spoilers, but not really. Has a poll so you can rate the film.City of Ember | The Movie | Reviewhttp://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=35854Synopsis: This movie was okay unless you read the book first and/or care that it is only somewhat loosely (and yet in some ways very closely) based on the book of the same name. But, go see it. It was good enough to watch. I went to the cheap show, just in case, so I wouldn't feel ripped off. And I didn't feel ripped off. I just wish it was as good as it could have been, because that would have been a great movie. Especially if they fixed the ending.
A charming fantasy tale
posted on 27 Jul 2009I saw this movie 2 days ago in a very rainy day. I wanted to escape worries of the day-to-day life, and I gave this movie a shot without really knowing what I should expected from it. And what a surprise! This movie was a great adventure fantasy movie with a good plot, a coherent universe and sweet characters. Probably the movie was targeted principally for kids but as an adult I never got bored a minute. I think that nowadays we do not have enough of these movies that main purpose is to create a viable alternative universe and allow you travel fro a few hours far away from your place. And this one does, so don't hesitate if you tired of watching City of Lost children for the 25th time, or you know all the dialogues of Dark City by heart, a must!
One of the truest book adaptations I have ever seen
posted on 23 Jul 2009All in all, this is probably in my top 5 books-turned-movie. I absolutely loved the book when I read it while I was in gradeschool. Its one of those eye-opening books that makes you look at humanity in a completely different way, and so I was incredibly excited when I found out that it would be adapted into a movie. About 90% of what happens in the movie happens in the book, and the remaining 10% are things I would consider improvements to the book. While many people complain about the "lack of action and adventure", the movie kept my interest the whole time, and there was more than one scene that caused me to hold my breath--sure, there were no gory fight scenes, but there was plenty of suspense. I would definitely recommend this movie for all ages, as it has just the right balance of mystery, suspense, and comedy, as well as lessons that can--and should--be taught to everybody.
A disappointment - read the book it is MUCH better!!!
posted on 23 Jul 2009I was so looking forward to this movie since I have read the series of books by Jeanne DuPrau. This is a book that I have read to more than one class of students (who have loved the book!). I was extremely disappointed in the movie and by the numerous changes from book to screen. About the only thing that the screen writer got right is that it was about Lina and Doon. The addition of technology (that did NOT exist in the book) did give me a chuckle - was an R2D2 robot necessary? Why did they have telephones - with telephones they had no use for a MESSENGER at all!! This movie could have been so much more - unfortunately the screen writer decided to rewrite the book . . . and RUINED it! I would not recommend this movie to anyone who has read the books - you will be DISAPPOINTED!!!
Bad screenplay, Great props & sets, Enjoyable movie.
posted on 19 Jul 2009I am very excited about this movie. It suffers from some of the things so common in fantasy films: Simplified storyline, too many things fall into place for the characters, generally directed at children when it doesn't need to be to include them. That being said, unlike most of the Fantasies in the past few years, these traits do not ruin the movie. The star actors do a great job, the story premise is interesting and relevant to today's world, and above all THE SETS AND COSTUMES ARE F-ING AMAZING! Finally a director has come who is over the whole CG dazzle and understands that CG has it's place but that it should be reserved for things that you couldn't otherwise do. Yes, this movie includes CG, but wherever it can it steers away from it. Interview with Gil Kenan on cinematical.com Kenan says "I'm not really impressed by special effects. I feel like I grew up in a generation where -- I knew how a blue screen worked when I was a five-year-old, and growing up with magazines like Cinefex around, there's no illusion to it. It's much more interesting to me to tell a story in a primitive way. That gives me the excitement that another generation of filmmakers has had of pushing the technological envelope -- I feel like it's a backlash to that stuff. And I feel like it's important to balance. There's a lot of fancy digital effects in the film, but they were used when the effect could only be created digitally, when there was no way to do something practical."This is a crucial attitude in the advancement of quality fantasy and sci-fi films. For years now we've been plagued with things like "episode" 1-3 of Star Wars, or worse, the CG animated re-edit special edition of the original Star Wars trilogy. UGH!Anyway, City of Ember brings back great costuming and set design aesthetic and is a huge step int he right direction for the future of fantasy and sci-fi film. And of course, it's engaging, enjoyable, and cool. Even if a little too childish / badly written to go down in history as one of the greats.Being his second film since the short animation that got Gil Kenan his career, and being such a step up from that, I am hugely excited to see what this fledgling director will be coming out with next.Read more of my reviews and other things at afoxdrinksblood.livejournal.com
Creative fantasy adventure
posted on 17 Jul 2009My 11 year old son and I enjoyed this movie very much, perhaps because neither of us has read the book. Visually it was a treat to visit Ember, a handmade city with no cars, creative clothing and houses and a community where everyone knows you. It just looked so interesting. The movie got off to a quick start, giving just enough back-story to get the mystery of the plot going. I think it is predictable from the beginning that the kids will find a way out, but how they piece together the clues and the specifics of their escape are unravelled in exciting bits and pieces. The suspense worked on two levels- will they find the way out before the City collapses- and will they find the way out before "the law" stops them? While all the actors did a fine job, I particularly enjoyed Saoirse as Lina. And the girls who played Poppy were adorable. My son said the same thing as other reviewers about the end- he would have liked to have seen the whole town pouring out into the light.
Missed opportunity
posted on 13 Jul 2009I went into this movie without knowing anything about it or about the book. It started of good in my opinion, a city under the ground because above ground humans made a mess of it all.... And that's about all I liked about this movie, you never get to hear why exactly they went underground which is a shame and why they have to stay there so long. Plus the story started real slow and never quite seemed to pick up speed, it was like watching a high speed chase involving snails and turtles. The actors were good but the story the characters had just weren't that interesting and I never had any feelings with them. It was like all the actors in the movie had an equel role in the movie and that role was not to stand out to much.. All in all a shame because I really liked the setting.
Really quite good.
posted on 13 Jul 2009A lot of the reviewers pretty well panned this, so I actually was quite reluctant to watch it. Turned out that it was a good thing that I did, as it was quite a satisfying SF flick. The young leads are both very engaging, the set design and art direction are excellent and the whole affair is kinda suspenseful. The myriad big-name character actors are slightly distracting, particularly Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, but all turn in OK performances. I think some of the critics were a little turned off, frankly, because the movie did so very poorly at the box-office. As the years go by, I am betting that this little movie holds up a lot better than some of 2008's big hits.
Fallout3: The movie
posted on 11 Jul 2009As an avid video game fan, I was amazed that such a blatant ripoff of the recent video game "Fallout 3" could have gone unnoticed. There are so many similarities that it can't be coincidence.It about a boy and his inventor/engineer father. His mother died. They live in an underground vault that has been sealed off for 200 years. There are mutant creatures, which coincidentally are almost the exact same creatures as in the game. In the movie:a flying-moth-thing, a giant beetle, and a giant star-nose mole. In the game: a fly-thing, giant ants and scorpions, and giant blind moles.All the underground city is extremely similar to a combination between the first two cities of the Fallout3 game, vault101 and megaton. The food, the tunnels, the architecture, the clothing, The peoples behavior, and the whole overall "we are locked in a vault and there is nothing outside in the world" scenario. The plot at the beginning of the movie: you are old enough to go get your job assignment at the "assignment" ceremony. The beginning plot in the game: you are old enough to go take the test to get your job assignment. sound familiar? Movie: your father tried unsuccessfully to escape the vault in the past, and now he will help you escape. Game: your father gets fed up and escapes the vault, but leaves behind clues so that you can escape.
A story lacking ember
posted on 05 Jul 2009Have you ever been to a movie that leaves you comment-less? This is one of those movies. It's just hard to explain what the impact of this movie.Firstly, I liked the colour of the city and the beginning part of the story. However, as the centre storyline begins to unfold, this movie failed to execute and in my opinion, it crashed and burned.The mole in the show was very annoying and looked rather fake. It appeared part-human and part-plant like. To be quite honest, it looked rather silly.I was left rather disappointed with the ending too... they should have showed more about what life on earth has then become. Looking back now, I can't remember much about this show at all. just bits and pieces but the most of it I have already forgotten as that's simply what this show is about. forgettable because the characters failed to attract my attention whatsoever. The characters lacked life and hence, they failed to make this movie come alive. I believe this show could have so much more potential than what it turned out to be.From the above, this explains why I gave this movie a 5.0 for being right-on-the-dot average.Conclusion from show: if you ever want to leave something for future generations to read, write it as simple as possible and leave many copies of it around.
A completely RIPPED-OFF version of a very old PC game called FALLOUT
posted on 01 Jul 2009This movie was good but the game was much better. Just about everything about this movie was ripped off of the Black Isle game franchise. Now developed/produced by Bethesda. Just change Mayor to Overseer and put 75% of the movie after leaving the Vault (a.k.a. City of Ember) and it's a match. Seriously though, there are far too many similarities for this to be coincidence ...I really do hope Bethesda/Black Isle are getting royalties for this because they invented this world many years ago. And their version is 10 times more intriguing. A movie I know would make a fortune would actually be FALLOUT. The game destroys this movie. It's a FPS RPG using Valve's latest HL engine. The story is great, the playability is great.Anyway, the movie was worth watching. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Simple, slow and bland.. well that's the way some likes it for their cup of tea.
posted on 29 Jun 2009A simple movie but nice to watch. Nice meaning not too bad and watchable if you can stand the bland storyline...Again City of Ember is ANOTHER adaptation from a novel. sigh... Hollywood's well of originality has really run dry..Anyway, if you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki, you will notice certain similarities in its plot. Well, City of Ember is no anime if that's what you are asking and there's no giant flying cat or castle that can walk.The similarity comes from its subtle environmental-message and also from the movie's setup. City of Ember's peculiar and weird 'arrangements' seems to fit very well like most of Hayao's works. Hence you don't feel the urge to ask why and how. The same that you don't question Nausicaa's way of life and you don't ask why there are wizards and witches in Howl's industrial-revo era setup. And you definitely don ask why a goldfish have a human face...In a glance this movie is boring and slow... but its appeal comes from its simplicity. The city itself and its way of life.I would recommend this movie to those who want an escape from all the "CG-slow-mo action and bullets that never seems to critically hit the hero" movies.A nice and simple movie that you may wanna bring your kids to.
City of Ember predates, not rips off, Fallout 3.
posted on 23 Jun 2009Regardless of one's critical preferences, it is simply invalid to criticize the film adaptation of City of Ember, based largely on the eponymous 2003 novel, as being a "total" ripoff of Fallout 3, a 2004 video game which didn't yet exist when the novel was published. Moreover, the concept of the lost city forgetful of its origins is far older than Ember, Fallout, The Village, Planet of the Apes, etc., and so are mutated giant animals & other post-apocalyptic themes. Fallout 3, whatever its merits, is neither some kind of ripped-off basis for City of Ember (novel or film) nor a groundbreaking concept, but rather last in a line of such post-apocalyptic scenarios. Any claim to the contrary betrays the annoyingly age-related tunnel vision of a young person well-versed in video games but ignorant of history or chronology--an ignorant perspective ironically similar to a resident of the City of Ember itself.
plato? Paranoia? etc
posted on 23 Jun 2009I must read the book....and stop going to 'kids'movies....and judging them as more than just kids movies..............or should I? Is Bill Murray a 'kids movie' regular? or Martin Landau for that matter? I think that large parts of this movie (i haven't read the book) is a hit at modern politics and are squarly aimed at adults.It is cynical and depressing, without being gory, and paints a very complelling setting of people obediently keeping traditions even when their world is coming to bits.It falls flat in that it leaves HUGE holes in the story on screen, and despite bringing up some deep ideas on society vs the individual as the crux of the film, it stops short of putting flesh on the ideas.Might be a certification thing.Good looking film. Doesn't seem to want to deal with the thoughts it conjours up, though.
Very good movie
posted on 19 Jun 2009I wasn't expecting much from this film, but I ended up loving it quite a bit. It's a great kid's adventure, lots of mystery and action, good character development, and plenty of cool settings.Bill Murray and Tim Robbins do a fine job in their roles, but they are mostly supporting cast. It's the two kids who are the real heart of the story. I also love how the filmmakers created an entirely plausible distant future where beauty still thrived despite crumbling infrastructure. Above all, this is a movie about hope for the future.If you are looking for a good adventure similar to THE GOONIES, check this out. Great for kids, and great for folks of all ages who enjoy light adventure.
A Nutshell Review: City of Ember
posted on 05 Jun 2009This film is strictly for kids. Not pimply teenagers though, but children whose parents will take comfort in knowing that this film is thoroughly family friendly fare, with nary a swear word, tame action sequences, no embarrassing physical romance they got to cook up an explanation for, and an inspiring theme that has to do with hope and working hard to achieve one's goals.Based on the book by Jeanne Duprau, one can find plenty of parallels with the setting of the story, where a group of inhabitants get to live in an artificial colony because of the sins of the fathers (well, the human predecessors who find that their rape and plunder of the Earth have finally taken its toil), and find themselves living underground in an aptly dark world, lit by plenty of light bulbs powered by an aging generator. Stories like these are staple in Japanese manga/anime, and the recent one that I've watched was Freedom, but that involved the moon. Or think The Matrix even, but for kids and minus the kung-fu inspired fight scenes.So the story goes that Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan, the kid from Atonement) has in her family's possession, an important piece of instruction leading to the salvation and exit of everyone from the city of Ember, given that it's been hundreds of years already and the infrastructure is crumbling. But that is if she knows that she has that information in the first place, and what exactly to do with it. So it's up to her and best friend Doon Harrow (Hary Treadaway) to figure things out, unravel the conspiracy involving their mayor Cole (Bill Murray, who's seriously in some need to snap out of sleepwalking in this role), and of course, make their way toward the clear blue skies of the surface.But in the meantime, you can't help but to feel a little short-changed with how the story develops, or there lackof. Here's a world that's artificially built both in the story, and as well as for the film, and little time is devoted to delving into a more detailed exploration of this strange new world where people live in an environment devoid of the sun. They grow their food in greenhouses, and have in their societal system, a structure of deciding what their career path for life will be from a young age. Modern technology like the cellphone is gone, and replacing it is the good old human messenger system relying on fleet of foot, and accuracy of transmission, all for 20 coins per message.All you get however are just very wafer thin highlights of this strange world, complete with strange creatures or their body parts, that I suspect if not for a relatively modest budget we'll see more of. At times too you do feel that scenes don't really gel and flow seamlessly from point to point, most likely getting trimmed to achieve a relatively palatable run time of just over 90 minutes. And you can tell from the modest budget too that the special effects did suffer a little in having them presented in raw terms in a major sequence involving a boat gushing down a mighty cavern river.While there's nothing much to shout about on the performances of the two leads, the film tried to up its star factor having minute supporting roles for Tim Robbins, as well as Martin Landau, an aged pipeworks technician, who will undoubtedly get the most laughs out of his penchant to strictly stick to his job, and nothing more or less. I suppose everyone can identify with this aspect in their own working life from time to time, except perhaps for the fact that his Sul takes pride in thoroughly doing a fine job if it's something under his scope.City of Ember is a very straight forward film with few bells and whistles to complicate matters. Coming from Walden Media, it's an extremely safe film to bring the whole family to, and kids will undoubtedly get a kick out of this action-adventure aimed squarely at them in the name of wholesome entertainment, and it succeeds on this aspect.
more to a bottle cap
posted on 28 Aug 2009Fox you fools!!! you have a real gem of a movie here and you are wasting it –there may be 'more to a bottle cap than keeping liquid escaping' –however there is also more than selling a movie than the odd random TV spot! This may be a film that succeeds in capturing the magic of the family film glory days of the 80's, (it took me right back to when I was ten years old and for the first time in years allowed me to become totally engrossed in the world that was portrayed before me) this does not mean you have to stay true to the 80's in your marketing campaign !!! Merchandise?Billboards?Internet?Giveaways?Video games? …………….. ………..No- just a lame trailer! Its 2008 get with it FOX! This movie will no doubt become one of those titles that the next generation discovers by chance who will pour upon it the real attention it deserves –strangely much like the box in the movie –how ironic! 9 out 10