Marooned

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of taking my family to see the movie City of Ember. Neither I nor my kids had read the books so we didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that the previews looked really interesting.

The story involves a post-apocalyptic scenario (of which the specifics we know nothing of) where an underground city is built to save the remnant of humanity. The city was built to last only 200 years by the “builders,” at which time the inhabitants would hopefully return to the surface. They only hoped that 200 years would be enough time to render the surface safe.

The builders convey a cryptic metal case to the first mayor with instructions on how to return, which is passed on from mayor to mayor until it is lost. When the 200 years are up, Ember is falling apart, and there seems to be little anyone can do about it.

The main story revolves around two young kids who work to solve the riddles of the case to finally find a way out back to the surface. Along the way they must fight a decaying city, rules against leaving and other things which I won’t say lest I spoil things.

This is the kind of story I really love. Post-apocalyptic is always fun and interesting, and lends itself to mystery and a sense of sadness (after all the world was destroyed). You have the remnant in trouble of dying for good, but there’s the heroes who have a chance to save it all. Then you have the lush environment of this underground city with all its interesting pieces of technology and humanity.

Best of all, the movie didn’t succumb to typical Hollywood tricks. It seems to have stayed fairly true to the books (although I won’t know until we read them.) It stayed interesting through the whole movie and it was hard to predict what would happen. Even if things seemed to tidy up nicely at the end, it was still all very interesting and fun.

The way the created the city and the characters was wonderful. The costumes, the environment, the lighting – it all works wonderfully and lets you seep in to the feeling of really being there and feeling the plight of the Emberites. It’s the type of movie that really gets my own creative juices flowing because it’s so fun.

I highly recommend you take this movie in – especially if you have kids – it’s perfect for them.