This infamous box office failure is one of those films I never fancied and after finally giving it a chance I understand why.

With a fantastic cast including Bill Murray, Tim Robbins and Saoirse Ronan this family friendly adventure tale tells the story of an underground society governed my a selfish greedy Mayor who is hiding several truths from his people.

Bill Murray feels wasted, considering he's the movies antagonist he is barely present and when he is it feels like the role could have been given to anybody.

Ronan is great as always the same as Robbins, but a stellar cast couldn't save City Of Ember.

It's not that it's a bad film, it's just too far from being a good one. The story is played out poorly, it all looks kind of hokey and in my opinion it needed to be longer.

City Of Ember was a huge commerical bust and lost its studio a fair few pennies, I'm sure that the fans of the book were not happy either.

The Good:

Very impressive cast

The Bad:

Looks worse than it should

Murray is wasted

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I want a giant moth

Overall, this was an "okay" film; not bad, but nothing that memorable. I enjoyed the sets of the subterranean city and the teen kids were likable, but it took a little long before anything happened and when it did it was a little too far-fetched with poor special-effects. Nonetheless, the visuals and acting were fine and supporting performances by the always-goofy Bill Murray and Tim Robbins were somewhat entertaining.

The most intriguing actor, to me, was Saoirse Ronan, as "Lina Mayfleet." At first she minded me a bit of Peggy Ann Garner in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn," but maybe two years older. Ronan has a plain but expressive and intelligent face, a la a very young Cate Blanchett. She looks like she's on her way to a good career.

Her counterpart, the male teen "Doon Harrow," was played nicely by Harry Treadaway.

Although it's a nice, safe family film, I think a lot of kids will be bored by the time anything happens, and adults will be so-so on it. I stuck around for the visuals, mainly, but was disappointed in how amateurish the action scenes in the last 20 minutes looked.

City of Ember isn't perfect, but I personally enjoyed it, and so did my family. I admit I haven't read the book, but I am the sort of person who likes to judge adaptations on their own merits. The film does look phenomenal, the set design is intricately crafted and the costumes are beautiful. And the special effects are mind-blowing, not the best special effects ever but not the worst, far from it. The soundtrack is also rousing and fun, the story is intriguing, the script is decent and the acting is very well done. Both Harry Treadaway and Saoirse Ronan(the better of the two) give appealing lead performances while Amy/Catherine Quinn is very cute as Lina's little sister Poppy. Bill Murray is deviously obnoxious as the slob of a mayor if there ever was one. However, despite the impressive visuals and performances, there are some problems. One is that while Tim Robbins is a good actor, he is given little to do as Doon's father. Second, the ending felt rather abrupt, the film could've done with a more rounded finish. Thirdly, the pacing is rather slow and drawn out at times particularly in the middle half. This is probably not helped by the occasionally sluggish direction. Despite these flaws, I liked City of Ember. 8/10 Bethany Cox