City of Ember: Review

Today a review of the above-mentioned title. Er....obviously.

SPOILERS ALERT

'City of Ember' is  about a fictional (duh) city underground, built by...a bunch of people to escape...something. It is powered by a huge generator that sustains the entire city.

(City of Ember view from above: the generator is the black dot in the middle)

What most people don't know, or have forgotten, is that the builders built a decay rate of 200 years into the generator, so that after two centuries the generator would go out and Ember would be dead. After the 200 years runs out, the city begins experiencing blackouts.

Here we meet our protagonists, Dune and Lisa. They are teens and just old enough to begin work, and thus they attend a ceremony much like the one in Divergent. Except they pick their job descriptions out of a hat.

Genius. Did I mention these are all government jobs? Figures.

Lisa is chosen for the venerable job of working in the Pipeworks. Dune gets the esteemed job of Messenger. Being dissatisfied with their jobs, they switch afterwards. And so they go to work.

However as time progresses, the blackouts become more and more lengthy. Concerned with this phenomenon, Dune decides something must be wrong with the generator. 

Meanwhile, Luna discovers a box made by the builders of Ember that contains directions to escape the city once the power runs out. It has been passed down and all but forgotten, until she finds it and makes the alarming discovery about the truth of Ember's decay, and the way out.

Luna and Dune begin to search for the exit. Along the way, they find out that the mayor of Ember is corrupt, and has been hoarding food in a safe room to sit out the city's blackouts. He doesn't appear to want to accept that Emberlight is fading. Sounds like he's swimming in Egypt, people, because he is in DeNile.

They escape the mayor's clutches and begin pursuing the exit with a vengeance, now wanted kids. Oh, did I mention that the insects and animals underground have now mutated into a huge-r version of themselves? They don't really talk about it all that much, but they do run into this huge mole. Ick is all I'll say. Said mole does devour the mayor, though, so kudos for that.

But turns out they do find the way out. They discover the sun, the world, and everything is amazing. They also find a crack that allows them to look down on the city of Ember that's far, far below. So they drop a rock with the message about the exit to the people down there, and...the end.

What did  I think?
Well, to be honest, I thought this movie was going to be mediocre at best. But as it went on, I actually got pretty interested in the plot. The characters weren't that developed, as this movie was fully advanced by the storyline. But still, it made for a nice watch. If I had to rate it on a scale of 1 - 10, I'd probably give it a 6. Not stellar, but not too bad either. The dialogue was fine, the characters - while 1D - were also fine, and the plot was pretty good.

Of course, there were a few plotholes. The main one I'll mention is the fact that they never tell you why Ember was built. There's no reason. "The good of mankind" is the closest they get to an explanation, but otherwise...movie logic.
It's rated PG, by the way, so there is practically nothing bad. No cursing, no kissing (which I was surprised at, given there's an unrelated guy and girl as the two main protagonists), and no blood or anything. This is mainly drama. And it should be totally clean for kids to watch.
Overall, I wouldn't really recommend renting it, though. You can, if you're really desperate for something to watch, but borrowing it from your local library - if they have it - is probably your best bet. Signing off, ladies gents and others!