Movie Review - The City of Ember

For the final assignment, I chose to do a movie review. I read the book “The City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau, and watched the 2008 movie production “City of Ember”. The movie was very different from the book. While watching the movie, I jotted down similarities and differences, and there were many more differences than similarities. While the theme of the story was the same, the movie twisted the order of the plot in some places, gave existing characters more of a role, added new characters, props, and story lines, and the way Lina and Doon escape Ember is nothing like how they escape in the book. The movie was enjoyable, but I would say they are not similar stories except for Lina and Doon being assigned jobs, finding a box with instructions, and escaping Ember.

First the movie creates a new order of incidents in the storyline. In the book, Lina sends a message to the mayor on her first day regarding the shipment before the big 7 minute blackout. In the movie, the big 7 minute blackout happens before the message. Just this little switch makes the movie and book so different because once Lina and Doon find out the mayor is hiding resources in the movie, there is no time to be concerned or report him because the city is dying faster than in the book. Therefore, Lina and Doon never go the guards informing them about the mayor, and they are never wanted or accused of spreading vicious rumors. The way Lina is caught by the guards in the movie is because she goes to the mayor for help regarding the instructions and he wants the box for himself.

Second, the movie adds new props to the storyline and uses others less. In the movie, the instructions are the most important find and Lina, Doon, and others spend the whole book trying to decipher them. In the movie, the instructions act more as a map that Lina and Doon decipher as they discover the exit out of Ember. The instructions are not this interactive piece like they are in the book. The movie also adds new props. One added prop is a glass plate in the found box. Lina finds this glass plate in its own compartment in the box. When Lina visits the mayor to send him the message from Looper, she sees that he has one just like the one in the box and she steals it later during the blackout. They later find out that if you put the two glass plates together, it acts as a key to open doors and turn wheels. More on that later. Second, the movie introduced an answering machine tape that Lina plays for Poppy to help her sleep. On this tape is the voice of her father and a second man’s message which introduces a new storyline.

This leads me to the next difference, creating new storylines. The movie created new storylines that were not in the book. This really changed the movie and made it not like the book. First, we find out from Clary that Lina’s father was not just a greenhouse worker, but was trying to find a way out of Ember. He thought the way out was through the river, but drowned trying to figure it out. Also, through the answering machine tape, Doon finds out that his father was working with Lina’s father in finding a way out of Ember. Doon ends up telling his father about the instructions. In the book, Lina and Doon’s fathers are not at all involved in their escape from Ember.

A second storyline is the existence of a huge alien animal. When Lina and Doon go looking for tunnel 351, they see two men walking down a tunnel with a box, then suddenly see the men throw that box into the air and run from this huge alien animal. This animal is ugly. It is a mixture between an octopus and snake. This animal creature spots Lina and Doon, and chase after them through the tunnels of the Pipeworks. Lina and Doon do escape.

Finally, the third storyline that is created or completely different is the way Lina and Doon escape from Ember. To escape Ember in the book, Lina and Doon together decipher the message and find a ladder leading to a landing in the Pipeworks. Once they descend down the ladder, they find a room full of boats and boxes full of candles and matches. Lina and Doon figure out how to exit Ember, but save the news and plan to share it with everyone at the singing. Once Lina is captured and the last blackout happens at the singing, Lina and Doon decide to escape Ember and inform the others how to escape later. They escape down the river in the boat, come to the end of the river, find a book and plaque with instructions on the wall, and climb a path for many hours until they reach the top and enter the new world.

In the movie during the blackout, Lina steals the glass piece from the mayor and escapes from the town hall. The guards are now after Lina and Doon. Lina and Doon hid out in the greenhouse, where they find a contraptions Lina’s father built. Together they ride the contraption out of the greenhouse, grab Poppy, and go into the Pipeworks. While in the Pipeworks, Lina and Doon put the two glass pieces together and it makes a symbol that Doon recognizes to be on the generator. They go to the generator and the door is locked. They again put the two pieces of glass together and it acts as the key to open the generator door. Once the door is open, Lina looks at the instructions and notices that the floor of the generator room is the exact shape as the instructions. She stands on the mapped floor and sees an arrow pointing to the lockers. Doon beats the lockers and one pops out with the word “Boat” painted on the side. They read the instructions and learn that they need to turn a wheel. Unlike the book where the characters spend many days trying to decipher the instructions, Lina and Doon decode them while escaping. They then turn the wheel and it puts the boats on a track that takes them through the generator room, down a slope, and into the river. But the problem is the boat gets crushed by the turning water wheel in the river. They again look at the instructions and learn that they need to set the water wheel gears to certain water level settings. They then enter the control panel room, opened by the glass key again, and turn the water wheel gear which lowers one water wheel and attempts to raise the water level by turning another water wheel on.

Here is where we meet a new character in the movie named Sul who is not even named in the book. A problem arises when one of the water wheels does not turn and the water level does not go up. Doon goes to his boss Sul and together they pry open the gears and higher the water level. Quickly Doon, Lina, and Poppy jump in the boat and are pushed down the river by a big wave. Here they travel down the ragging river just like in the book. Yet, the movie creates a new scene and jumps back to the City of Ember where they show the singing and water rising from the ground. The mayor, unsure of what is happening, runs to the Pipeworks and locks himself in the supply closet with all the food. Here the big alien animal shows up and eats the mayor. This was definitely not in the book.

Now Back to Lina, Doon, and Poppy where they arrive at the end of the river and now find the candles and matches. In the book, Lina and Doon find the boxes of candles, matches, and supply of boats in a room behind the falls of the river. But in the movie, Doon, Lina, and Poppy find the candles at the end of the river, climb stairs instead of a path, and enter a room full of tables and chairs. When they walk out of the room into the outside world, Lina is disappointed and says they walked into darkness. In the book, Lina feels overjoyed and happy to enter a freshly smelling new world. But then the sun rises, Lina sees a blue sky, and feels happy. All of a sudden they see a huge bird fly into a hole in the ground. They look in the hole and see it is Ember. Here, just like the book, Doon and Lina send a message wrapped around a rock down to the City of Ember. But instead of Mrs. Murdo finding it like in the book, Doon’s father finds it and the movie ends here just like the book.

After reading the book and watching the movie, I feel that the book is more enjoyable. The book creates more of a suspenseful mystery readers can interact with more than the movie. The book presents the reader with the message and offers them the opportunity to decipher it with Lina and Doon. Also the book presents readers with the shady, unknown character in tunnel 351 and allows the reader to become a detective and figure out who that character is. In the movie, the journey to find the exit out of Ember was not as suspenseful. The instructions are not as important and there was no feeling of suspense or urge to keep watching to see if they escape. The storyline and suspense does not build enough like it does in the book and the exit out of Ember happens so quickly instead of the characters working and leading up to leaving the city. I do have to say I feel that the movie did a nice job of creating the image of the City of Ember. While reading the book, I created an image of Ember in my head as this cave like city that was dirty, musty, and not so colorful. I feel that the movie captured this. The movie really created an underground city that was dirty and powered by lights. All in all, I feel that the movie does present an interesting story of an underground world, just in a very different way. I guess if you want to see a movie where the mayor get eaten by an alien animal and interesting technology and mechanisms are used to help Lina and Doon escape from Ember then the movie version is for you. I enjoyed the movie, but would recommend the book to people any day.