Sorry, this movie sucks

How sad is this?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

With the end of the world approaching, a team of the most wise scientists decides to create a new city underground, known as Ember, powered by an enormous generator. Many years after, as the power source begins to fail more and more often, two teenagers start looking for a way out of the dying city, although this act would mean to break the law. It's a story which bases on a very interesting idea, of building an entire city underground, but fails in implementing it and especially in creating an interesting story, one which can build up suspense or drama. What is even worse is that the characters seem to act very childish, almost like they were ten year old kids who cannot tell the difference between good and wrong, making often head scratching decisions. The whole movie looks and feels as it was designed for kids, especially when taking about plot and characters, although the dark atmosphere would make me think otherwise. Many things do not add up or even make sense, thus leaving a bad overall impression. No satisfaction with the finale, no drama, no suspense. It really is a shame that they couldn't do more with such a good idea that they had.

City of Ember is a family comedy adventure with dark undertones maybe because it is set in a vast future underground city powered by a massive generator which has become increasingly erratic.The reason that underground city of Ember was constructed because of a past cataclysmic event which meant the leaders of the city had to go underground for 200 years and the mayor of the new city was entrusted with a box that counted down each year and would past down mayor to mayor until it got put in the back of a wardrobe.Over 200 years later the city is run by porky corrupt mayor (Bill Murray) and the citizens live on cans of foods and whatever vegetables that are grown underground. Jobs are assigned randomly, when people went underground it seems the Asians and Latinos were left out but a few black people were let in just to keep up the diversity of the cast.Two teenagers, Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway) and Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) who have been given newly assigned roles discover a possible route out of this dark, corrupt, dying pit. Doon's father, Loris (Tim Robbins) previously tried to escape and Doon has been determined to find out what is the problem with the generator.The film starts out brightly with some sarcastic humour supplied by Murray but it soon starts to unravel. The film is an adaptation of a book and the screenplay does not seemed to have been thought out. It starts out very much like a critique of communist societies. The fat mayor is a clue that all is not well, a bit like Animal Farm.The second half then starts to resemble a half baked adventure film as the two teens start to follow clues laid down 200 years earlier by the builders of the new city and the climax is borrowed from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but with some ropy CGI.The film was rather disappointing, I think the the source material was gutted to make a generic family action film.

This movie starts out okay, but later on not so much. While the two main characters are trying to find their way out of the city it obviously can't be too easy for them. I get that this is the whole point of the movie. However, this is the type of movie where the characters make such stupid decisions you find yourself yelling at them for most of the last half. Some people may find this suspenseful, but I ended up wishing they would just die so it will all be over. In the end I fast forwarded when I couldn't take it any more, but found myself too invested to just turn it off. Simple and predictable, but sadly I've seen much worse.

CITY OF EMBER spends a whole lot of time creating a post-apocalyptic future, where survivors live in a huge cavern filled with steam-punk style technology. Sadly, that's the limit of the imagination, because the film's narrative is virtually non-existent. You can't make a movie with a good setting alone, and the flaws are all too apparent once you begin watching.Attempts to make Bill Murray's comedy mayor into some kind of villain are undone from the outset by Murray's comic acting, while further attempts to bring gravitas via the casting of experienced actors like Tim Robbins and Toby Jones are similarly misplaced. The central plot, about the two kids searching for a way out, is dull beyond belief, and sleep-inducing. There's absolutely nothing new here.My only comments are that Saoirse Ronan is a very poor and overrated actress, limited to a single expression for a great deal of the time, and that the film's sole saving grace is the presence of old-timer Martin Landau, who is by far the best thing in it.