Screenhead

Before I start this one, I’m going to have to ask you to sit down.  Get a cup of something soothing in front of you—coffee, tea…maybe you want to pour a knock of something stronger in there.  Okay, you ready?  Because what I’m going to tell you is going to blow your mind wide open.

Today, I’m talking about a movie called City of Ember.  And the best way to describe it is as a family-friendly version of Bioshock.

See, yeah. That got me too.  Because City of Ember is all about the city of Ember, an underground, self-contained city that runs on hydroelectric generators run by an underground river system due to some kind of disaster that took place on the surface.  Before entering the city, a box was created, containing tools and instructions to exit the city after two hundred years.  But the box, in the fullness of time, is lost, and the city of Ember carries on.  The only problem is, Ember was designed to function for two hundred years without incident.  Problems don’t appear right away…but they begin to show up.  Ember’s residents make do, and work around many of their troubles, but the problems are starting to get larger and much less fixable with the passing months.  And it doesn’t help that Ember’s residents seem to be forgetting a lot of the technological prowess that got them underground in the first place.  So now, it’s pretty much left to two kids to figure out how to get out of the city by piecing together some of the clues left behind from the fragments of over two hundred year old instructions left behind.

It’s a very subtle movie, City of Ember—it’s got some interesting political commentary, and a nice treatise on how those in power have the potential to abuse that power for their own aggrandizement.  It’s also interesting how, if you move past the status quo, you can find a whole new and wide open realm to work with.

But for those who were hoping for more action and adventure, well, it’s true that you’ll be gravely disappointed.  City of Ember is almost what amounts to a family-friendly suspense title rather than an adventure movie.

However, there’s also something to be said for the appearance of Bill Murray.  Bill Murray is good in just about anything, a fact that’s been used to improve several run-of-the-mill movies with a little extra spice, and City of Ember definitely benefits from Murray.  It doesn’t hurt that they cast him as a venal, callow, corrupt mayor who’s been secretly funneling off supplies for his own use.

When you stack it all up, you get something of a specialist movie in the end.  This is a good one for people who like really great visual work—City of Ember is full of it.  It’s a good one for people who like puzzles in their movies—City of Ember is stuffed with them.  And Bill Murray fans will definitely not be disappointed.  But unless you fit part of a very narrow set of people, you may well not enjoy this movie.  But since I did, I definitely have to recommend it, but take my recommendation with an appropriate grain of salt.  After all, I’m a Bill Murray fan who likes really good looking movies that have puzzles in them.

Popularity: 1% [?]