City of Ember (Blu-ray) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Fantasy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Sets Featurette-Effects Interviews-Cast Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	90:56
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gil Kenan
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	David Ryall Ian McElhinney Harry Treadaway Tim Robbins Bill Murray B.J. Hogg Toby Jones Lucinda Dryzek Matt Jessup Lara McIvor
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Andrew Lockington

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) English DTS HD High Resolution Audio 5.1 EX (4608Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080i
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    After an unspecified disaster, mankind has retreated underground to a purpose-built city named Ember. There they continue to live until it enough time has passed that it should be safe enough to head back above ground. Alas, over the years this purpose has been forgotten, largely thanks to the untimely passing of one of the city's rulers, and the city has continued to function long past its expiry date.

    The generator at the heart of the city is on its last legs, a fact that is repeatedly played down by the pompous Mayor of the town (Bill Murray), and although most of the city's inhabitants are quick to realise that all is not well, few are willing to act. Two newly grown-up citizens, Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway), set about solving the city's troubles and in the process unearth much of its forgotten history. Though they have the help of Doon's father (Tim Robbins) and one of Doon's aging co-workers (Martin Landau), the mayor and his lackeys (including the ever shifty-looking Mackenzie Crook) prove a greater hinderance than they could imagine.

    City of Ember is an amiable family-friendly adventure movie that never quite reaches the level of excitement it seems to promise. The cast is great, as are the characters they play, though the ensemble is overwhelming in number to the point that pretty much every character needs more screen time than they are afforded in order to cash in on their potential.

    The most memorable aspect to the film is its gorgeous production design. Opting for sets and physical effects ahead of CGI for the most part (and on the largest indoor single set ever assembled), City of Ember has a warm, curiously homely, steam-punk look about it that proves its greatest asset in engaging viewers. The scale of things is massive and consistently impressive, particularly in regard to the attention paid to every detail.

    City of Ember is worthwhile viewing for anyone drawn in by the concept or look of the film, but there's no doubting it could have been more.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080i, 50Hz (not 1080p). Many early adopters of Blu-ray have reported problems with 1080i playback, however I had no such problems on a Playstation 3.

    The video looks very good. The image is sharp and clear. The level of detail is impressive. There is an excellent level of shadow detail, along with good depth to the subtly varying blacks in the many shadowy scenes (City of Ember is set underground, after all). A moderate level of film grain is visible throughout, though it is more obvious in some scenes than others. The grain adds a good level of authenticity to the film and prevents the extraordinary style of the film from looking unnatural.

    No distracting film artefacts or compression artefacts were noticeable in the transfer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and an English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kbps) audio track. Both sound excellent, though there is noticeable extra depth in the DTS track.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout the film. The audio appears to be in good sync at all times.

    The film features a fairly run-of-the-mill orchestral score that, despite not being particularly memorable in its own right, hits the right highs and lows to enhance both the action and suspense of the movie.

    The surrounds are put to great effect in creating a believable underground environment. As well as clanks and clatters, echo is used to great effect to create the environment.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    An underwhelming quantity of reasonable quality extras. All the extras, save for the one Making of a Scene featurette, are presented in high definition.

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The disc opens to a fairly standard animated menu featuring audio from the film.

Effects Featurette (4:27)

    A short featurette that demonstrates how a combination of physical special effects were coupled with relatively minor CGI for several of the key action scenes of the film. Well worth a look, but many viewers will wish it went into greater depth.

Set Featurette (4:17)

    Another short featurette, this time on the mightily impressive set constructed fot the film. Production designer Martin Laing does a good job of justifying the construction of one of the largest single sets the world has seen. This featurette will certainly leave viewers wondering about why so many lazy directors rely so much on CGI sets nowadays.

Cast Interviews (6:00)

    Interviews with thea lead kids about their characters. Yawn.

Making of a Scene Featurette (10:41)

    Part press-kit making of, part flimsy examination of a scene (which itself is arguably a spoiler), produced for the FOX movie channel, this is more advertorial than anything else.

    City of Ember has not been released on Blu-ray in Region A, despite a DVD release some months ago.

    A decent adventure film suitable for the whole family. City of Ember is an immersive film, but one that never quite reaches its full potential.

    The movie looks and sounds great, particularly with the transfer this Blu-ray (although some viewers will take issue with the fact that it is presented in 1080i/50 rather than 1080p). The extras are of decent quality, but thin on the ground.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall