City of Ember

[philomom]

The movie was pretty good, though in Hollywood style different from the book.

They added a couple of mutated creatures for some scary chase effects. And the boat ride leaving Ember was very "flume ride" -ish.

However, the costumes and such were great. The shirts and sweaters all patched up with different pieces. Everything was just as worn, dusty, moldy as all get out... very believable that Ember was a city wearing out and way past its prime.

We liked it.

[Viola]

I want my daughter to finish the darn book so we can go see the movie, but maybe I won't worry about it.

[yonit]

So here's a question....

My daughter is a very mature 8 yo (almost 9). She has read the book -actually the whole series. I read it with her and she did well with it and really enjoyed it.

The movie is rated PG-13 though. We don't do many movies and she has never seen a PG-13 movie before. Would the movie be inappropriate or not?

[philomom]

It is rated PG. There are some "running for your life" moments and one very scary creature with an implied death off screen. No bad words or sexuality of any kind.

[Verity]

I took my almost-11-year-old daughter this weekend and enjoyed it. I agree that the movie would be fine for 8-9-year-olds who aren't easily scared.

My daughter is now begging me to read the books. I'm not keen on reading them, but she really wants me to!

[felix23]

I loved the book, but really hated the movie. They changed it too much for me.

[mirlee]

Our whole family went. I thought it was good, though things seemed to wrap up too neatly. We never read the book.

[Verity]

Originally Posted by mirlee

Our whole family went. I thought it was good, though things seemed to wrap up too neatly. We never read the book.

I don't think I would have liked the movie if it hadn't had a happy ending. It would have been way too depressing otherwise.

[mirlee]

Originally Posted by Verity

I don't think I would have liked the movie if it hadn't had a happy ending. It would have been way too depressing otherwise.

I agree with your statement on the ending. I was just thinking that everything seemed to fall into place a little too easily to get them to that point.

[annettemarie]

Just got back! I liked it, except for those big-ass bugs. They gave me the willies.

I felt like they had a good balance between making the characters caricatures and making them realistic.

I agree about the flume ride. I kept thinking "Boy, someone is going to buy the rights to this and make a theme park attraction".

I didn't mind the ending.

[Verity]

Originally Posted by mirlee

I agree with your statement on the ending. I was just thinking that everything seemed to fall into place a little too easily to get them to that point.

The ending did seem a little too tidy, as if someone was motioning to the director that he was over some arbitrary time limit.

I will be interested when I get to the end of the book to see how much detail it gives.

[JessicaS]

The book ending is somewhat tidy as well.

The books are REALLY short and there really isn't as much to them as a lot of people probably would have done,. It goes straight into another book.

I haven't seen the movie yet, we read the books when we saw Bill Murray was going to be in the movie.

[Verity]

At my daughter's request, I read the book. Despite knowing the story, I really enjoyed it, and found myself crying at the end. Lina has become one of my favorite characters from all the books I've ever read.

I just finished People of Sparks. I think the characters are well-drawn and the story thought-provoking.

I highly recommend these books to anyone who hasn't read them!

[sapphire_chan]

Dh and I listened to it on tape, so I just now realized the main character is named Lina.

[annettemarie]

For some reason, I kept comparing Lina from Ember to Lyra from the Golden Compass series. The similarities in their names, I guess. They both were kind of ruthless and they both were willing to go against the rules. I found Lina more likable from the get-go, although Lyra grew on me.

[Verity]

I've heard of the character, but I've never read that series, so that comparison didn't come to mind.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by felix23

I loved the book, but really hated the movie. They changed it too much for me.

I really didn't like the movie, but my daughter and SMIL enjoyed it. What I didn't like about it was how they cut from one scene to another to another very quickly. There were only a few scenes that were more than a couple minutes long, it felt like, and those were toward the end. What they did in the book that they didn't, or maybe felt they couldn't, do in the movie was talk about what life was like in Ember.

My daughter read The City of Sparks, and I read it too, and her grandparents got her the Prophet of Yonwod, but she stopped reading it once she realized that Doon and Lina weren't in it.

[philomom]

Prophet of Yonwood is the worst book. Skip ahead to the final book. It's back to our main characters. May still be in hardback, but the library should have a copy. Diamond of Darkhold is its name.