For two hundred years the city of Ember has been buried, safe from the holocaust that had ravaged the Earth. But in that two hundred years knowledge has been lost and the mighty machines which sustain life have gradually given in to entropy with power cuts ever increasing. Now the city stands at the edge of a precipice, if the generator fails completely, all will die. It falls to two of the cities youngest members Lina Mayfleet, Doon Harrow to discover the secrets which have been lost and find a way to save their people...

City of Ember (2008 - 1 hr, 30 min, 54 sec) is a science fiction/fantasy film directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House) from a script by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) based on the original novel by Jeanne Duprau. The film was nominated for two awards at the 2008 Satellite Award: for best Best Art Direction & Production Design and Best Costume Design.

The film boasts an impressive cast. Along with the two leads Bill Murray appears as the town's corrupt mayor, Tim Robbins is Doon's father and a secret revolutionary, Marianne Jean-Baptiste puts in a turn as Clary and Mackenzie Crook appears as Looper, the keeper of one of Ember's dwindling food repositories.

Visually the movie is a real treat. They were able to film it on the highest sound stage in the world, allowing them to actually build most of Ember for real. Lina’s house is complete with a shop downstairs and living quarters above, allowing long tracking shots without the need to cut between stages.

No offence to the actors, but the real star of Ember is the city itself, with its signs of obvious decay. Doon’s introduction to the generator, which powers the whole city, via a combination of mechanical and electromagnetic means, is one the highlights of the film, which should look pretty awesome in the Blu-ray version, but still takes your breath away in the DVD.

The main weakness of the film is not the set or the acting, it’s the script. What starts off as an intriguing premise, soon turns into Logan’s Run, even down to having to use the river beneath the city to escape and the inevitable shot of the sunrise - which comes as a surprise as, for reasons unknown, the city folk seem to have lost all knowledge of astronomy. Although there are moments of magic in the script there is also a lot that has been seen before both in film and novel.

The DVD has a decent amount of extras. First up you get three short featurettes under the heading of Behind the Scenes. Ember Special Effects (4 min, 27 sec) gives you a whistle-stop tour of how the effects were generated, although the largest extra provides more detail. The Largest set in the World (4 min, 27 sec) takes you round the set of the film with Martin Laing - Production Designer - and includes, as they all do, contributions from the main cast and crew. Last of the smaller pieces, Doon, Lina, Poppy, has the two main actors discussing their roles and take on the film. Fox Movie Channel Presents Making of a Scene: City of Ember (10 min, 40 sec) deconstructs the scene where Doon first encounters the giant generator. This is actually very informative about how the scene was constructed and should please some budding film makers.

In the end it is not the set, which is awesome, nor the acting which lets City of Ember down, but a relatively weak script. That said, it's still worth a watch and should especially appeal to anyone looking for a film that can be enjoyed by all the family.

8

Charles Packer