City of Ember: Worth Watching
I saw City of Ember tonight and really enjoyed it. It’s not the most fantastic film I’ve seen recently, but it’s got a good, solid adventure story, some really engaging characters and gorgeous visual design. It also has a few excellent things I’m not used to seeing in sci-fantasy films generally, or in films targeted at children:
1. Equal hero time shared between a male and a female lead. Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet are co-protagonists, and they each discover necessary information and do heroic things throughout the course of the film. Woo!
2. No romance between the male and female lead. In many movies, if there’s a boy and a girl of a similar age and they’re older than, like, six, they get together by the end of the film. It’s a little hard to tell for sure – particularly because Harry Treadaway, who plays Doon, is ten years older than Saorise Ronan, who plays Lina – but it seems that Lina and Doon are meant to be pretty close in age. And yet, no superfluous romance. I know! I was pretty surprised too.
3. Multiple female characters. Who talk to each other. I think there are almost as many supporting female characters in City of Ember as there are male characters, and I counted only two points – in a film full of conversation – where two female characters talked to each other about a male character. At one point, Lina asks an old friend of her father’s about him. Another time, a friend of Lina’s tells her about her new boyfriend. That’s it! All the other talk between women and girls was about the same sorts of things that men and boys talked about. Amazing.
4. This (post-apocalyptic) future has people of color. The bulk of the cast is white, but there are people of color living in Ember, and one of the important supporting characters is a black woman. Well, it’s a start.
City of Ember hasn’t done well at the box office, but I know I’ll be buying a copy when it comes out on DVD. This is the kind of film I’ll be happy to share with the kids I know.
Posted in *Kids' Shows, *Sci-Fi/Fant. 
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13 comments
I seriously need to see this movie. I’ve seen in panned in most places, even by people who love the books, but I’m pretty psyched after reading this. (And I looooooooove the books.)
I’m glad to hear that this movie’s good; my husband and I were talking about seeing it on Sunday, but never got the chance. Now, I think we’ll have to find the time.
Rebecca - The criticisms I’ve seen focused on the slow pace of the plot, and it’s definitely not an Action! Adventure! movie. But as a diehard sci-fi fan with a particular love of generation ship speculative fiction, the quieter pace of events really worked for me.
I didn’t even know this movie had opened. I haven’t seen any ads for it on the SciFi channel or during the prime-time shows I watch. So I have to wonder if this has impacted the box office.
We only have one movie theater in town, I hope that it sticks around long enough for me to see it because what you said, coupled with the cool trailer, I think I would really like it.
The trailer I saw made me think of an old HM Hoover novel, “This Time of Darkness” which focuses on the girl hero rather than the boy as they try to escape an underground society to the outdoors (considered to be a myth but the boy says he came from there).
KLee - I wondered about that myself. I got really excited when I saw previews for City of Ember several months ago, but I hadn’t realized it was in theaters until I checked the paper to see what was playing locally right before we went to see it. It seems like marketing dropped the ball.
I haven’t read This Time of Darkness, but it sounds interesting. Would you recommend it?
I dont’t think that even counts. When it’s obvious the female in question has no romantic interest in the male in question I think it negates the ‘talking about men’ thing. (Scarlett would do a tongue-in-cheek face if she could find the key.)
Scarlett - that’s part of why I mentioned it, actually. Even when the female characters are talking about men, it’s not the usual way around in this film.
revena,
I agree, it certainly seems as if marketing really dropped the ball. I have to wonder whether the ad budget was really small or was put primarily towards ad time on Nickelodeon and Saturday mornings.
If you like reading Juv books, then I would definitely recommend Hoover’s This Time of Darkness… that is if you can find it at your local library system. The book does show it’s age a bit but Hoover’s novels are classic children’s sci-fi and most of the author’s books, if memory serves, feature strong female protagonists. I would also recommend Hoover’s Children of Morrow, which has a not as well done IMO sequel called Treasures of Morrow. All 3 stories are set in rather dystopian futures but ultimately end on a good note.
Although I had to sell most of my collection, I used to collect my favorite juv/ya books, mostly SF-F or future/apocalyptic adventures, that featured strong female characters. I’ve fallen out of the loop on my reading list so I haven’t even looked at the “City of Ember” novel.
KLee - yeah, I’m a big YA speculative fiction fan. I’ll have to track down some of Hoover’s stuff!
Revena,
really? I would love to compare titles/authors with you some time.
I would also rec Nelson’s The Girl Who Owned a City (older YA). It starts a bit with a similar premise to the classic Trek episode “Miri,” in that all the adults are killed by a plague leaving a world of children. One girl starts to organize her street & it grows from there.
Less likely to be found anywhere but worth the search is Wilanne Schneider Belden’s ‘Mind’ series.
I’m definitely keeping an eye out for this.
I want to see this movie. Mainly, because oliemoon said the book was good. I haven’t read the book, though.
I don’t think they should of used two actors of THAT age difference, because what if in the 4th book the writer decides to hook them up? would a say 20 year old want to snog a 13 year old? I think not! it just wouldn’t be right. but the film is fantastic and I think the lack of romance may be a good thing.
But hey! I love romance between characters my OWN age, hate adult romances for some reason, doesn’t seem real enough to me, I think there should be some major Lina/Doon romance action in the 4th book or following books! wo0t! The writer (names left me) should have what HP books had in the finale book, 17 years in the future thing but they don’t live that long in ember so maybe like 5 year when like you see Lina and Doon getting married maybe? oh well see what that fantastic writer comes up with! (someone please tell me her/his name!) thanks.
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