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City of Ember Smolders

Kids will enjoy nonsensical movie

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 10, 2008 4:19 PM CDT

(Newser) – Kids should enjoy the “rousing and action-packed and short” City of Ember, so long as they "haven't already been hopelessly corrupted by high-powered sci-fi on TV and video,” Roger Ebert writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. But for adults the movie may prove too nonsensical, and, for other critics, too dull. “I've had more fun trying to assemble an Ikea wardrobe,” writes Chris Tookey in the Daily Mail.

The problem is what Tookey calls the “extraordinarily boring story,” which fails to create interesting characters or “give them sufficiently knotty problems to solve.” Most critics agree that it looks great: "The movie's production design is the real star," writes Ty Burr in the Boston Globe, outshining "the heavy-breathing plot and distressed ambience."

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In this image released by Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media, Saoirse Ronan, left, and Harry Treadaway are shown in a scene from "City of Ember." (AP Photo/ Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media)

Bill Murray attends an advanced screening of his new film 'City of Ember' on the closing night of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Fox Walden, Jack Plunkett)

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City of Ember trailer. (sxvang)

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This is a Boys' and Girls' Own Adventure, rousing and action-packed and short. - Roger Ebert

I've had more fun trying to assemble an Ikea wardrobe. - Chris Tookey

It is hopeless to try to understand everything that's thrown at us. Does the magic box really contain only a disintegrating list of instructions? - Roger Ebert

I felt like City of Ember ended at an ambiguous moment — right at the point where I expected another half-hour of conflict and action. - Jette Kernion

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City of Ember Smolders