MovieChat Forums > City of Ember (2008) Discussion > No Danger

No Danger

posted 12 years ago by widescreeneyes
5 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie recently and while I thought it was OK, there didn't seem to be any serious danger in it. For example:

The generator was playing up, but the blackouts didn't seem that serious, nobody got injured, nothing got broken. There was no "end of the world" vibe with the general population.

Food was running out, but no-one appeared to be suffering, or even slightly hungry.

In the end chase sequence, hardly anyone seemed to be chasing the heroes. They had all the time in the world to fix the water so that they could escape by boat.

The Mayor could have been trying to bump the kids off, but instead, he didn't seem bothered that someone was about to expose him.

Had they amped these up, the movie might have had a bit more life to it.

[–] mrwalrusq 11 years ago

I thought it was clear that the infrastructure was failing. Had the generator completely failed, they would be in complete darkness. The light used for greenhouses would also be gone and there goes the food. It was obvious to me that they only had a matter of time before they were doomed.

[–] raf-33 11 years ago

You obviously watched a different film then mrwalrusq, because the one I watched and I believe the one the OP watched had all of the towns folk in the central square of the city enjoying some sort of church choir. Maybe you could see the fear of impending doom in people's eyes as they smiled and cheered the choir, but we didn't see it.

I agree with the OP, the reason the movie didn't fair well was a lack of immediacy by the director, I get that he was aiming for a family picture and not an action fest, but he tried to hard to make a 'Grinch who stole Christmas'-style fairy tale instead of something a little more mature.

Rumours are flying wild that the next blackout will be the big one, there are animals the size of houses in the pipeworks, food stores are nearly empty (and yet police smash up a greenhouse while a woman yells "this is our food"), and despite all of this the towns folk take time out to watch Ember Idol in the city square.

You don't know sh!t, Jon Snow!

[–] blakkdog 11 years ago

Im sure if they had made this an R rated film and not a PG film aimed at the disney set with limited conflict and where a couple kids are the heros that it would have been more to your liking (and perhaps better). But that would have been a different film. Wouldnt have minded seeing it with more of a Road Warrior feel to it myself but it could have easily gone over the top. Wasnt this a book at first?

[–] ultumaphoenix 10 years ago

The lack of the sense of immediacy is true to the original novel, actually. The people of Ember live in denial that they are doomed. They become religious about the Builders and choose to believe that they will show up at the end and lead them to safety.

The whole conflict was that the mayor and some of his cronies were preparing for Doomsday and that only Doon Harrow of the general population seemed to see this coming. Everyone regarded him as an overly imaginative young man. Eventually Lina comes to suspect as Doon does that the Generator is an its last legs and once the lights went out, they wouldn't be able to find food and what not. Doon also pointed out that they would lose the water pumps and no one would have water anymore.

But in the book as well as the movie, the entire conflict witnessed was really only something that effected Doon, Lina, Poppy, Mayor Cole and his cronies, and the lady Lina and Poppy lived with after Granny died. It was a very quiet revolt.

[–] Krissd-162-619455 9 years ago

I really wish we could get to see the rest of the series as movies as well. Though the third is a bit boring to be frank.

I found it quite clear that they are living in denial. In the religious way of beliving the builders would save them.

That being said. The idea of a box being their way of escaping is stupid. Why not have a counter open a big fat door and light up a path with a bit "EXIT THIS WAY" sign above and just fregging stairs on the way out.
I mean. they go about 50 years above the time they were meant to. IN that time there would be born 1-2 generations more depleting the rations even faster.