

#The city of ember movie#
At only 95 minutes, the movie feels as though it had been shredded in the editing room. Most of the time, however, it’s a whiz-bang kid’s film with neat gadgets and sound effects and an extended chase and escape sequence through underground rivers and tunnels. In Jeanne DuPrau’s children’s novel (the first of the four-part “Book of Ember” series), from which the film was adapted, Lina and Doon are dewy 12-year-old adventurers loaded with pluck but devoid of personality.Īt moments “City of Ember,” directed by the British filmmaker Gil Kenan (“Monster House”), suggests a mild satire of end-of-days ideology, especially when Mary Kay Place appears as a prating, singsongy proselytizer for the status quo. Ronan, who is 14, and the dimple-chinned 24-year-old heartthrob Harry Treadaway portray Lina and Doon, best pals fleeing a subterranean dystopia guided by the kind of cryptic instructions found in the “National Treasure” movies. In “City of Ember,” she has nothing to work with. The mayor shoves a man and a physical fight ensues.To watch the talents of Saoirse Ronan, the brilliant young actress from “Atonement,” being wasted in the science-fiction juvenilia of “City of Ember” is to be reminded that a powerful performance needs an equivalent screenplay.The police force themselves into Lina’s and Doon’s homes, accuse friends of helping them, and smash and overturn objects. Lina and Doon are chased by the mayor’s police force in an aggressive manner.When Lina becomes aware that the mayor is stealing food from the city’s residents, the mayor’s assistant grabs her, throws her against a wall and takes her to the mayor.A giant mole chases Lina and Doon and attempts to eat them.The mayor is eaten by a giant mole (we see the mole coming for the mayor and hear the mayor screaming as he is eaten).A man who is arrested as he attempts to leave the city is taken away screaming by masked men.Doon is chased by a menacing man and thrown down a flight of stairs.There is some violence in this movie including the following: Together with Doon, she battles a corrupt mayor, a weary society and a giant mole to piece together the clues within the box and discover a way out of the city. Lina finds the special box in the back of a dusty cupboard.
#The city of ember generator#
They have just started their first jobs as service people to the city and become concerned about the city’s future when they notice that food supplies are running low and the city’s only generator is beginning to fail.

The main characters of the film, Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway), are teenagers living in the city 200 years after its conception. When the holder of the box dies suddenly, it is misplaced and the plans for the way out of the city are lost. The box is programmed only to release the escape plan in 200 years. At the time, a special box was also created and encrypted with secret plans for escaping the city. City of Ember tells the story of an underground city built 200 years ago in the hope of saving humanity from the end of the world.
