City of Ember looked like it might have some promise, then it suddenly fell off the radar. It was in theaters for about 17 seconds and the next time I heard of it, it was on the DVD rack.
So when I saw that FilmJunk reviewed the DVD I gave my monitor the “oh yeah! I forgot about that movie!” face, and read up:
Based on the Mark Twain Award-winning children’s book by Jeanne Duprau, City of Ember takes place in a man-made city that is surrounded by darkness. The entire settlement runs on an underground generator, and its inhabitants are not aware anything existing outside of the city. As the story picks up, frequent power outages are becoming a major problem and the city is on the brink of disaster. When twelve-year old Lina Mayfleet stumbles across a mysterious box in her home, she unwittingly unlocks the secret to saving her people, but she must fight corruption within Ember’s city council in order to help everyone escape from the darkness.
See, I liked this movie much more when it was called “The Island”.
Innocent people living their life in secluded peace until someone realizes all is not what they were lead to believe.
The theme has been hit up a number of times in a number of ways. Movies that open your eyes up to how the world is different than what you were taught are hardly new. Its not a BAD concept and can be done well. Apparently this isn’t one of them.
According to FilmJunk the movie isn’t terrible, but its not great. Might be worth a rental.
marc/bert/angela
rodney DID make a review! dont believe anything he says! and he said “the island” so we have to lynch him!
and he said, i quote “the island and city of ember are the same exact thing, fuck obama”
any previous life success will be canceled out because of this post.
like angela, i am disappointed!
rodney= fail.
hazmat is unimpressed ‘_’
Interesting, I watched this the other day and never once thought of The Island. I enjoyed both movies, but it is amazing how dissimilar they are. It is like comparing Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons to Forest Gump. Similar in the most vague and simplest of plot, but presentation totally different. Because it is about a secluded group of people discovering an outside, City of Ember is similar to The Island? Then The Island must be like The Village? Not trying to be a naysayer, but though the simplest bare boned plot of the stories are similar, these movies could not be any more different. It is like comparing water as liquid and ice. Same substance, different presentation that makes them unique and different.
City of Ember was certainly not inspired as a story or really moving in any way, but it was entertaining and certainly worth a watch purely for the amazing visuals.
While there are similar themes it’s comparing oranges to apples. The City of Ember wasn’t amazing but charming and the very least, safe for kids. Both Tim Robins and Bill Murray were excellent.
Are you kidding me? Saying this ripped off the Island? Please tell me that you know that the Island was a cut and paste of THX1138. If anything, say it was a ripoff of that. That was actually an original thought, as opposed to that Island trash.
Every plot has some superficial similarity with some other plot. Especially when you’re boiling them down to log lines and one paragraph summaries and you take out everything that makes the movie worth watching. Heck, in my screenwriting class we’re all required to find another movie that explores a similar theme and write a paper about it because it can help strengthen our own work and help us figure out what works and what doesn’t. Not to mention that the most powerful and provoking themes are universal ones that have been done time and time again. Discovering that your world isn’t what you thought is a universal theme that a lot of people can identify with.
While I haven’t seen Ember yet, I’ve read the book and it’s one of my favorites. There’s only a bare minimum of similarity with The Island. Extremely bare minimum.
I could probably pick two movies at random and find a way to make them as similar in theme if I boiled them down to a single log line or premise.
This was a great flick, for the main reason of production design. The world created for this film was very artistic. It successfully blended the setting and characters together to really pull you into the story.
*Spoiler*
My only gripe is the ending. The whole system is setup so when the time comes the entire city gets to migrate to the surface, but the kids find the way out and make it, granted they were on the run and shit wasn’t working right, but still the rest of the genepool is stuck underground, you might want to expell a little more effort freeing humanity than dropping a friggin rock with a note on it.
As a fan of both “The Island” and “City of Ember” I must point out a couple of things.
1) It’s a wholly different plot than The Island, as this is about the survival of the entire human race, and The Island is about harvesting healthy parts from clones illegally created and then murdered to obtain. (Among other things, like carrying a child.)
2) When City of Ember comes to its’ ending, I was reminded of “The Island” and was thankful that it didn’t duplicate it. I remember consciously thinking about that and sharing that opinion.
I thought that City of Ember was a visually stunning movie, that did a great job of realistically creating the world that the characters lived in. Not only that, but it FELT lived in, and like they have, indeed, been there for 200 years.
Another thing to make note of: City of Ember is based on a book called “The City of Ember” by Jeanne Duprau that came out in 2003. The Island was released in 2005. City of Ember is the first in a series of books that has only recently concluded, with the fourth and final “Book of Ember” called The Diamond of Darkhold. City of Ember was produced by Tom Hanks.
All that so you can prove the meaning of the word “similar”
I explained the similarities and why the premise sounded familiar to me.
I know what the movies are about and as many before you, I am well aware that its based on a kids book.
Tom Hanks might be one of the coolest people on the planet but I don’t know why you mention he produced it. Not everything he does is gold.
Yeah, I have to agree, it sounded like you reviewed it, not just posted a link to an actual review. It’s based a book, which 5-6 graders love. It is not like the island in the fact that Ember was created to actually save the Human race, but the information that was passed from leader to leader was lost, leaving the current inhabitants, hundreds of years later with little info of what really happened. The place is falling apart, food is almost gone, and its about go into darkness. The kids find part of the information, which is partly destroyed and have to find a way out of Ember for all of their people. I’m a little disappointed in you. As a critic, I didn’t think you would blindly post someone else’s opinion. It’s a good movie and should have been reviewed from a kids point of view.
Reviewed from a kid’s point of view? Maybe we should run a section of the site where my kids review movies then. Or I can choose to admit I haven’t seen it and simply inform you that someone online reviewed it.
I didn’t “blindly post someone’s opinion” I linked to it in case someone else (like me) had forgotten about this movie and wanted some info. I don’t see why that is such a bad thing?
If I was a professional film critic I could see there being an issue with me just saying “read him instead” but since I am not a professional film critic, talking about something that I was reminded even existed is just blogging.
Ugh, comparing it the island, how irritating. I really liked this movie, it’s flawed no doubt but it has charm, it’s sincere and it’s exquisite to look at. As an adult I found it unsatisfying in the story/dialogue/character department, but as a kid I would have loved the shit out of it. If I have kids some day this will definitely be on the list of movies to create nostalgic memories for them.
I love that you call this a DVD review.
I also love that you cite The Island as though it created some class or genre of story.
Because the movie just came out on DVD (I might have mentioned that above) and it is a review.
And I liked the Island and compared the similarities of the plot.
I don’t see your problem.
I have to agree with Marc – How is this a review? Based on this websites precedent for a review, there is generally in depth look at the Good and the Bad aspects of the movie, decent descriptions of the overall acting, direction etc.
Oh yeah, you should usually put whether or not you liked the film that generally helps.
Well considering I wasn’t the one who reviewed this, I would be remiss to start saying how much I liked it.
Its a DVD review. A review based on the release of the DVD (its features, extras etc)
Your presumptions over what this post was about is the problem. Not the post itself.
The fact that it has Bill Murray is reason enough to see this movie. Even if it is based on an already done theme.
God “The Island” sucked…. and wasn’t “The Island” a copy of something else?
I never read the book, so I have no interest in the movie.
It’s far more of a family movie then The Island was. How young are your kids again? I’d say if they’re not too too young, they’ll probably really enjoy it, and you’ll probably mildly enjoy it.
It’s nothing I’ll watch a second time, but I don’t regret watching it either though.