DVD Review: City of Ember

Film:     

City of Ember
2008, 95mins, PG
Director: Gil Kenan
Writer (s): Caroline Thompson, Jeanne Duprau (novel)
Cast includes: Tim Robbins, Bill Murray, Harry Treadaway, Saoirse Ronan, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook
DVD Release Date: 20th January 2009

To call City of Ember anything better than “good” would be to exageratte it’s worth to any viewer but by the same token to slander it as anything less would be harsh. It’s a perfectly acceptable and mostly enjoyable fantasy romp based on a childrens book of the same name, and in the talented hands of Gil Kenan things are at lest kept energetic and fresh allowing the viewer to forgive the pictures faults more easily.

At the start we are informed that Earth has been put beyond repair, to damaged and lifeless for humans to thrive and survive on it’s surface. As a result a group of scientists boffin types create the city of Ember, a temporary haven for the human race whilst the planet regroups and returns to past health. In order to keep future generations informed concerning the earth’s state and allow the humans to leave the underground city they now inhabit, the Scientists leave a message to be opened 200 years in the future by the then Mayor. Each Mayor of Ember has to pass on the box to the next but somewhere along the line one Mayor forgets and the chest is lost.
Flash foward a few years and Ember is in disrepair, humans have been there to long and the towns power supply is inches from giving up completely. The current Mayor (Bill Murray) is selfish and the people below him are not only suffering major blackouts but slowly starving to. Two of the towns younger members Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon (Harry Treadaway) decide to try and escape, convinced after unearthing the lost plans that Ember was only a temporary solution, and not the eternal answer. Together they struggle to convince those around them of their impending doom if they don’t depart for the planets surface, but also in trying to find a viable way to exit the town once and for all.

The performances in City of Ember are pretty good, of the two young leads Saoirse Ronan is clearly the better but Harry Treadaway far from disgraces himself. The pair share a neat chemistry and work well in constructing modestly engaging and likeable screen personas, they look to be having fun and do a decent job of transplanting that same feeling onto the audience. Bill Murray is at times effective as the sinister Mayor but not consistently imposing enough to create a truely memorable villian. The viewer might not particularly like the character but niether does he seem capable of vast evils, thus leaving the picture a little lacking in villiany. The likes of Tim Robbins, Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones also feature, doing good work with smallish roles. Kenan has done well to recruit such a solid cast especially given the minor nature of some of the characters on show. It helps the production enormously to have such quality fill in the cracks surrounding the more prominent cast members.

The production design is beautiful and the film visually well constructed, Kenan has an eye for nice shots and art direction allowing the film a nice flowing aesthetic feel missing from other genre counterparts. This allows the film to at least remain easy on the eye, useful when on occasion the picture lapses into more predicatble and generic form. This doesn’t happen that often and when it does the screenwriter manages to pull things back up promptly enough, but one can’t neglect that from time to time things get a little dull. These minor lapses into tedium may have largely effected the films uninpired Box-Office, those under 8 are unlikely to be pulled into something that presents a dose of sedative, even as infrequently as it occurs here.

That said the film is a good deal more intelligent than most pictures aimed at the kiddie fantasy market, it lacks the emotional highs of something like Bridge to Terebithia but outranks the likes of Eragon and The Golden Compass with surprising ease. The majority are likely to find enough to enjoy so that the film represents time well spent, one would have to suggest that it be filed under “high quality rental” for the more discerning film buffs out there. As fantasy cinema goes City of Ember plays well and certainly within it’s weak hearted genre it’s almost top tier stuff.

The Disc:     
The film looks good on this DVD release, the stark visuals and strong colours getting a release worthy of the film they inhabit. Fox has presented the picture on 2.35:1 Anamorphic widescreen and provided a solid audio effort in the form of a 5.1 Dolby track. It’s not groundbreaking by any means but seeing as the movie fared so badly financially it’s alot better than I was expecting. We also get 2.0 tracks in French and Spanish with the latter also provided as a subtitle option. Not one of the very best discs I’ve seen all year but on the whole it should satisfy those wanting to attain a nice home entertainment experience.

Extra Features: none
The DVD has no bonus features unless you count a smattering of previews for coming attractions. Distributors really ought to be doing alot better.

Final Verdict:     
The lack of added content is a gut punch and the film is probbaly best served as a rental, but a modestly recommended one at that.