The presence of children does not a childrens' movie make. City of Ember presents a compelling future dystopia, but struggles over who its audience is supposed to be. This is, at times, a very dark film, both visually and thematically. Then there are touches which are clearly only there to make the film appeal to kids. Of course there are films that can legitimately appeal to the entire family, but those are a rare breed. This script doesn't have what is needed to pull that off, and could have benefited from either going darker or even more kid-friendly.  ...read more