Search - City of Ember on DVD

Brent R. (owls86) from HILLSBORO, OR
Reviewed on 9/19/2011...

A good kids movie. My husband and I thought that it was a bit slow for adults. Didn't seem to explain everything which is probably due to the fact that it is based on a book and they couldn't fit everything into the movie. (I haven't read the book, so I don't know) Overall a good wholesome kids movie.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Lisa K. from WESTPORT, WA
Reviewed on 11/14/2009...

This is a good kids movie. The giant mole is a little scary for young children though.

2 of 4 member(s) found this review helpful.

City of Ember

C. A. Luster | Burke, VA USA | 03/31/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a good but borderline excellent movie. I debated between three and four stars. It is quite good and worth the whole family seeing at least a rental. I was impressed with the acting, sets, directing, and music. The effects although not overwhelming were subtle and effective. A society moves underground for hundreds of years and forgets their plan to return to the surface. A couple teenagers find the plans for the return and try to get to the surface. The mayor spouts how he wants change, but then plots to keep them the same along with him stealing. Interesting parts for Tim Robbins and Bill Murray. Good quality DVD with decent replayability. If you enjoyed this, catch Arthur and the Invisibles (Widescreen Edition).

CA Luster"

Very Entertaining

R. Hartman | 02/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I have not read the book. I wasn't aware there was a book until reading other reviews. Appearently the book is very different. Being that this film had such poor reviews I rented it first. Fortunately for me being ignorant of the story, My family found this to be a very enjoyable movie. The acting is done well and is believeable. The story is exciting and compeling as the two children must decipher the clues left by the builders to find the way out of Ember.
The only disappointment is the complete absense of special features on the DVD and no Blu-Ray release (which I'm holding out for). Appearently the producers didn't feel it was worth the bother. Sad."

A beautifully visualized setting and set-up, but some questi

Celia Hayes | San Antonio, SA | 03/22/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a movie which barely made a ripple at the box office, before apparently sinking without a trace, only to emerge in DVD release. Which is a pity, as it is eminently watchable, not least for the detailed visualization of the underground city of the title. It is based on a very popular series of `tween novels; I imagine that if you don't have children of an age to be entranced by the books, it would have been very easy to escape any knowledge of them at all.
The set-up for the story involves an unspecified disaster on the surface of Earth, and the setting up of a refuge city deep under the earth; an entire city, completely self-contained in a vast cavern, supplied with enough food for 200 hundred years, powered by an enormous water-powered electrical generator. The civil authority, in the form of the Mayor of Ember is supplied with a small metal box, with a set of crucial instructions and a timer which will go off when supposedly it will be safe enough to emerge from Ember and live on the surface again. But there has been a break in the chain of mayoral authority; the box has been lost and forgotten, sitting on a dusty shelf. The current Mayor is a corrupt and manipulative fool, willing to see all decay around him, if he can hold onto power and privilege for a little longer. More than 200 years have passed, and the electrical generator is breaking down. Blackouts are coming more often and lasting longer, and the only people who seem to have an interest in doing anything about it are a pair of teenage friends. Lina works as a messenger, relaying personal messages among the inhabitants of Ember, since any electrical messaging system has long since decayed. Doon works in the `pipes' repairing and maintaining an infrastructure tottering on the edge of collapse. Everything in this world has an authentic look of something worn out, used-up, patched and repaired many, many times. The movie works and works well, right up until the very, very end - the escape from Ember by Doon and Lina, and Lina's little sister, which apparently seems to involve a wild water-ride - and an abrupt ending which leaves a number of questions unanswered; like, what actually happened on the surface so many years ago, and what was with the monstrously huge beetles and moles in the outlaying caverns? And what would happen to everyone else, left behind in the crumbling city? The ending seems quite rushed, and unsatisfactory - as if the budget didn't allow quite enough time for a satisfactory wrap-up. Not having read the books themselves, we were left more than a little puzzled. But up until that point, it is an excellent movie, in comparison to some of the others which target the youth market. Lina and Doon are likeable, responsible teenagers, not a pair of bratty, spoiled know-it-alls.
"