MRM – City of Ember at 5:40 PM

Directed by: Gil Kenan

 

Written by: Jean Duprau (book), Caroline Thompson

 

Starring cast: Harry Treadway (Doon Harrow), Saoirse Ronan (Lina Mayfleet)

 

Supporting Cast: Bill Murray (Mayor Cole), B J Hogg (Mayor’s Guard), Tim Robbins (Loris Harrow)

 

What’s it rated?: PG for some action-suspense (and one mild sexual reference)

 

Genre: Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi

 

Synopsis: When mankind is about to come to an end, a group of scientists decide to create and populate a city deep underground. The city of Ember is to last for 200 years after which its inhabitants are to retrieve from a strong box instructions to return to the surface. Over time however, the message is lost and life in Ember is rapidly deteriorating. Their power supply is failing and food is being rationed. It's left to two young adults to unearth the secret of Ember and to lead the way out.

 

My take: While the acting, CG, and scenimatography are pretty good in Ember, It’s story is rather lame and dull. There are several “rabbit trails” that you think are going to lead to a climax… but don’t. And this isn’t just a one-time thing, this happens again and again. I think the director and writers didn’t really iron out this story enough.

 

There are several messages communicated in this movie that aren’t excactly what I’d agree with; first of all is the simple, depressing, pessimism that is all too prevalent. Sure there is a bit of a resolution at the end, but the overwhelming message is that it’s too late, there’s no hope, so don’t try to fix anything. However this isn’t all bad, because the protagonists, Lina and Doon, actually try to find a solution to the problem despite ridicule from others. The next message I almost didn’t pick up, and I probably wouldn’t have without the help of pluggedinonline.com. It is this: the people living in the city of Ember seem to have no particular religious view, but I beg to differ. Apperently there is a quasi-religious celebration called the “Great day of singing”, where all the people of Ember gather to sing about the greatness of their massive generator. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a religion to me and even though it’s not compared to Christianity, it’s depicts the religious leaders as fools and generally makes fun of all religion.

 

In conclusion, I’ll say again that the technical side of City of Ember was done pretty  well, but the artistic element was somewhat lacking. That along with the subliminal messages sent through this movie make it not what I’d call a great film.

 

Story: 5 out of 10

 

Humor: Not really applicable, but for what there is: 6.5 out of 10

 

Suspense/Action: 6 out of 10

 

Overall: 4.5 out of 10

San Antonio at 8:30 AM

Understandably, I haven't made many posts in the last week or so because I've been in sunny mid Texas for a business conference. But I've got a few free moments now so I've posted a slidshow of all our pictures so far. I'll put the rest up later after we visit the Alamo etc.

-Graydon L

MRM – An Inconvenient Truth at 1:13 PM

Directed by: Davis Guggenheim

 

Starring Cast: Al Gore

 

What’s it Rated?: PG for some thematic elements

 

Genre: Documentary, Environmental

 

Synopsis: A culmination of environmental messages is presented here as Al Gore gives a lecture to a live audience.

 

My Take: All I can say is “Is that the best you can do?”. I had always thought that An Inconvenient Truth was one of those films that if you can’t refute every argument, you will not be able to stop yourself from becoming an avid environmentalist. Nothing could be farther from the truth… inconvenient or not. With my limited knowledge on the subject of “Global Warming”, I was surprised at how easily it was to get through the statistics and charts that are presented in this film. Not only this, but Gore has to resort to intimidation just to get his point across, saying “Not one major scientist challenges this [Global Warming] belief”. I think this is a really cheap argument and a rather moot point seeing as how it’s not true at all. His statement is based on how out of more than 900 articles about Global Warming,  not one was against it. Just 900+ articles; He never says who wrote the articles or which publication released them!

 

The outline is pretty good, I guess. Typical documentary style, partly narrated by Gore, part actual footage of Gore talking to a live audience. But one mistake I think they made was the use of cheesy, childish, “Simpsons” style animation sequences to explain certain concepts that were already explained. The animations did nothing more than throw me out of the film and make me feel really stupid.

 

Lastly I’d say, It’s easy to lie with statistics, and Gore has perfected this art beautifully.

 

Story: 6 out of 10

 

Humor: 6 out of 10

 

Suspense: 4 out 10 (10 out of 10 if you believe that GW is real)

 

Overall: 4 out of 10

 

-Graydon

Blogging at 5:44 PM

I came across this poster on the internet the other day, I think it should be offended, but It’s still funny :-)

 

 

www.despair.com