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Review: City of Ember Story:
The film starts with a meeting between group of wise men, engineers, scientists, leaders and the elite. The Earth is facing a disaster (unknown) and no one can survive. So they have designed and built an underground city (Ember) that will last 200 years. They also prepare a timebox that will open automatically after 200 years and give the instructions on how to return to the surface.
One of the wise men asks, "Will 200 years be enough?", to which the President(?) replies that no one csn predict the time line.
The sealed timebox is given to the mayor of the city and has to be passed from mayor to mayor till 200 years are up. However, one of the mayors (the 7th in the line) dies without disclosing the secret and the box is seemingly lost forever. 200 years later, the time lock on the box opens automatically but the box itself is lying with the descendents of the 7th mayor (Mayfleet) and no one knows about it.
Meanwhile, time passes further and the city's well designed systems have deterorated a lot and start failing. The blackouts have increased and the hydro-electric generator is in eminent failure. The food is running out and the telephones have completely failed. Meanwhile, the main characters Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow have just graduated from school and have been assigned to pipeworks and messeging respectively. Doon had hoped to be assigned to the Generator but is disappointed at being the messenger. He trades places with Lina saying that at least Pipeworks will be better that being a messenger.
Lina, as a messenger, has to deliver messages orally and correctly, because the telephones have been gone for years. She discovers that the city is collapsing while Doon finds out that the pipes have more patches than pipes. Once while delivering a message to the Mayor, Lina sees the portrait of her own ancestral Mayor (great-great grandfather). He has a box in his hand which Lina has seen at her home.
Lina discovers the timebox but is unable to fathom what it is. She finds a torn circular paper with writing and a strange plastic rectangular plate. She tries to jigsaw fit the written instructions and since she finds the word 'pipeworks' she takes it to Doon. Lina also witnesses one person being arrested for trying to find the exist to the city and finds out that some more have made attempts in the past, including her own father. Her father had drowned while trying to escape via the river.
The Mayor of the city, is aware of the city's issues. He is totally corrupt and has secretly created his own bunker, stockpiled with food so that he can survive after doomsday. Lina discovers this and tries to report it to the mayor's deputy, who is himself in league with the Mayor. The Mayor finds the box with Lina and tries to take it. But a power failure allows Lina to escape. Lina had also seen a rectangular plastic plate around the mayor's neck that resembles the one found in the timebox. She manages to wrest it out before escaping. The Mayor sends an alert to arrest Lina and Doon.
Lina and Doon discover that two rectangular plastic plates fit into each other and form a key. Deciphering the broken text from the papyrus, they discover the entrance to the Genrator chamber via the pipeworks. They get unexpected help from the pipeworks foreman (Doon's superior). Meanwhile the city is celebrating the annual day and the generator starts to fail. The Mayor quietly withdraws to go and hide into his secret bunker. The Mayor locks himself in his bunker but is attacked and killed by huge mutant mole cum rat.
Lina, Lina's little sister, and Doon manage to escape via the river. Doon's supervisor manages to keep the waterflow regulating by manual intervention even after the generator has failed. They eventually escape to the surface but are disappointed to find that there is no light on the surface. But the night passes on and as the day shines through, they are amazed to find that the Earth is livable. They peer down the large hole from which the climbed out and see the distant City of Ember and realize that they had all been living underground all along. They throw a stone down attched with a note. The stone could have been lost anywhere but it lands at the feet of Doon's father (who had himself tried to escape earlier along with Lina's father).
So the people of Ember could now escape the collapsing city and return to the Earth.
Comments: A nice fantasy film. Good for a weekend.
Rating: 3/5
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