Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Harry Treadawy, Saoirse Ronan, Tim Robbins, Bill Murray,
Toby Jones, Marianne-Jean Baptiste, Mackenzie Crook,
Liz Smith, Lucinda Dryzek, BJ Hogg
Written by Caroline Thompson
Certification UK PG | US PG
Runtime 95 minutes
Directed by Gil Kenan
Kids movies are frequently a very good way of getting ‘adult’ issues across to the mainstream audience. When they work well — Bridge to Terabithia, for example — they can blow you away and introduce the younger viewer to life’s big themes. Done badly, however, and they’re… well, they’re City of Ember.
Like Terabithia, City of Ember is based on an apparently successful kids book dealing with a dark theme: in this instance it’s (possibly) post-apocalyptic gloom. Ember is an underground society where, for some 200 years, the citizens have lived under the glittering lights provided by the generator. Beyond the city limits lies darkness. As far as the citizens of Ember are concerned, they are all that exists. However, the generator is failing and the food — all canned — is running out but two teenagers, Doon (Treadaway) and Lina (Ronan) think they’ve found the answer to the city’s existence and a way out.
There are, clearly, some interesting points to be made here, with the potential for political satire and a deeply moral centre. However, it appears that every scene that provides some sort of explanation has been edited out in order to get it to a kid-friendly running time. It also appears that the budget was spent on decent names — Robbins, Murray, Landau, Baptiste — rather than the script. Everyone does what they can with the little they’re given but they’re hampered at every step by the apparently hacked editing and some gaps in logic. By the time of the truly dreadful CGI climax –seriously, Ray Harryhausen could have done it more convincingly – you’ll be wishing that the lights had gone out on Ember some 90 minutes earlier.