City of Ember

In the future some unspecified catastrophe has wiped out most of humanity and forced the survivors to live underground.

Unfortunately, two centuries later, supplies and power are starting to run low. Luckily two children, Lina and Doon, discover instructions on how to get back to the surface, but their forebears have left a series of puzzles and adventures that must be overcome in order to do so. This is a sort of future Goonies, then, and a film that cheerfully ignores bus-sized gaps in logic in the hope of building sufficient momentum to carry its audience along with it. If that audience is under 12 years old, it’s a job well done.

Mark Blackmore reviews games and DVDs for Focus

Director: Gil Kenan
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway
Entertainment in Video