Seen on: October 11, 2008

The players: Director: Gil Kenan, Writer: Caroline Thompson, Cast: Bill Murray, Toby Jones, Saoirse Ronan, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Harry Treadaway

Facts of interest: Based on the book by Jeanne Duprau.

The plot: Two youngsters (Ronan and Treadaway) must save an entire underground city before the lights go out and darkness thrusts everyone into panic.

Our thoughts: While Gil Kenan’s “City of Ember” fails to qualify as an extraordinary family adventure, the film boasts enough energy and excitement to captivate younger audiences from start to finish. You can hate me for saying this, but this kind of films turns out to be more constructive than your average animated flick in which talking animals keep doing the same stuff over and over again.

To protect mankind from the end of the world, scientists once built an underground city that would sustain for 200 years via a powerful generator keeping people out of the threatening darkness. But now time is up, and the generator starts failing at an increasing rate. Before the last lights in Ember go out, two courageous youngsters set out to uncover the city’s secret and find a way out before it’s too late…

“City of Ember” is based on the book by Jeanne Duprau, but because I haven’t read it, I’m obviously in no position to discuss how the big-screen adaptation compares to its source material. That said, the film version’s fast-paced plot made it quite easy for me to sit through the 95 minutes without a lot of complaining. It takes a while to set up the story, but once that is done, the movie plunges straight into a bunch of overall simplistic but engaging enough action.

  

Like most kids’ flicks these days (especially the ones distributed by Walden Media), “Ember” also includes an ecological message that the young ones may not necessarily pick up. To others, it may seem a little too obvious at times. Most importantly, it does not slow down the film’s pacing, serving instead as a little backstory not many people may eventually care about anyway.    

Despite soft action sequences that look good on the screen but fail to provide intriguing suspense, I applaud the filmmakers for achieving a visually stunning feature. The production design on this one is flawless and engrossing, complete with beautiful sets that give audiences the impression the actors are really on location in a real underground city. Kenan’s solid direction worked for me as well.

Character development is rather scarce, and it’s hard to bring out any emotion for the leads in this film. Saoirse Ronan, who delivered a fabulous performance in “Atonement,” has an expressionless face at times. Doon (Harry Treadaway), the boy on her side, brings along a lot more passion and energy. Smaller roles by Bill Murray and Tim Robbins go pretty much unnoticed.

Freaky quote: “What would count down to nothing?" – Saoirse Ronan

The final word: In the end, “City of Ember” is a decent adventure strictly for younger audiences. It’s not a phenomenal film, but it’s entertaining enough to take the kiddos and watch them have a great time. Isn’t that worth it?