How To Grow Your Geek: Parenting and More!

Hi guys,

I have been waiting on this movie ever since it was announced they were going to make it. It is one of my favorite series of books. And I hoped and hoped Hollywood wouldn’t mess it up. And you know what? They did a really good job for once! Woot!

The movie starts out with a group of scientists in a all white room, sitting around a table. There is a older man, rushing though a hallway holing a silver case with red readout lights on it, you can hear bombs dropping from above. He enters the room and sets the case on the table. Then they discuss the fact that the city of Ember is mankind’s last hope for survival, and after 200 hundred years this case will open up and the people left will read the instructions on how to return to the surface and repopulated the earth again. Perfect! It set up everything really nicely.

Now I wont go into a lot of details on the story. You guys should read the books, and I already did a review. Hehe. But honestly, you don’t have to know the books in order to enjoy this movie. It goes with the book VERY closely, with only two parts not in it. But I’ll get to that in a bit. Let me go over some highlights and things I loved in this movie.

First, the city of ember itself. It is just like I pictured it to be, bet way to describe it is the way dad did. It is like a cross between the city like in a Christmas carol, and the building in Diagon ally in Harry Potter. Everything is close together, and the streets are narrow. It looks run down a bit, and dirty. The people do too. And there are lights everywhere, but instead of it being over whelming and bright. There is dullness about it, and the lights go out more and more, longer and longer.

The pipeworks and generator too are just as I pictured. The pipe works look, hot and damp and dirty. With many place where the pipes leak and water is coming out. The generator is huge, and looks way cool. You can see there are parts that no longer work, and places that are breaking down.

The actors:

Okay this is where this movie was perfect for me. All of the actors were VERY GOOD. Bill Murry played the current mayor of Ember. He was heavy set where everyone else around him looked skinny and wasted. He played the bad guy perfectly.

Tim Robbins played Doon’s father, he was quite but very wise. He also had a hurt inside himself, but like Doon and Lina he wanted to wither help fix Ember or find a way out. He works on things like toasters and radios and all kinds of stuff that has broken down, which is why Doon likes to fix things as well. Oh one thing that you guys will like, one point in the movie; he is working on a robot arm. J

Martin Lando played a old man who helps Doon in the pipe works, he has been doing the same job for so long. And he is not interested in anything else. He plays a important role in the movie, and is very good.

The two actors that play Lina and Doon are great too, I never seen them before; so this might be their first movie. Lina is just like I pictured, Doon seems older, but was still good.

The movie moves very fast, but didn’t feel rushed at all. Not a lot was left out from the book, and it was just SOOOOOO good.

Okay the two problems I had. And I’ll deal with the one dad called a couple shows about, because it’s important. The bugs and animals in this movie were HUGE, Doon finds a moth as big as a dog, and part of a beatles pencer that is as big as your arm. Ok weird, but I can get past this. Here is the problem. THERE WAS A HUGE MUTANT MOLE IN THE PIPEWORKS! Grrrrrrr. No where in the book is this thing, and the ONLY reason it was in the movie? To scare little kids, that’s it. It made no sense, had nothing at all to do with the story, it was just the ” oooooo scary monster”. And it was scary, no doubt. It opens it mouth, and there are like these tentacles that come out and feel around everywhere. It was gross. And made me so mad, why do they do this to movies????? I’ll never get it.

The other thing different from the book, actually worked better. In the book, Lina’s grandmother dies and she goes to live with this really nice women that takes her in. And when Lina And Doon do make it out. (Sorry spoiler) They drop a note that she finds. In the movie she is there, but it’s Doon’s father that finds the note. No I won’t say why this is better. But it works. Sorry you are only getting one spoiler. Hehe.

Over all this is a GREAT movie! I loved it so much we saw it twice, hehe. So if you get the chance, go see it. Just make sure you cover kids eyes when the mole comes.

Darcy