In the novel that City of Ember is based on, the city only has enough supplies to last 200 years, so that's when they set the box to open. They don't want people trying to get out and dying. It makes only slightly more sense.

That movie also really suffers from Terminator 3 syndrome. I feel like that entire movie is a first act, and I want to see the story of them exploring the surface instead.

I disagree, and I personally really dislike the trend of making movies that "just lead up to the really good part" so we can have a great sequel someday maybe. There's no reason you can't use the story as a jumping off point and just make something more cinematic and interesting, or just find a different book to adapt. This is one reason I really like James Cameron, he always delivers the epic climax instead of hinting at it for future sequels. If anyone else made Avatar, it would end just before the big battle, with a big "to be continued style ending", but he'll go and make a 3 hour movie and give the audience what it wants to see (don't get me wrong, I think it's his weakest film, but it at least tells a complete story).

I'm just saying, based purely off the movie, it feels like a giant prologue to a much more interesting sequel. Its not like Fellowship of the Ring, which has an interesting story in its own right while also setting lots of future things in motion. This is a case where I think it would have benefited from combining two books into one, which would also help keep our minds off all the plausibility issues with the story. Obviously this doesn't make sense for every series out there, but I think it makes sense here.

And regarding Terra Nova.......jesus don't get me started on that piece of crap. Talk about having protagonists you want to see eaten as soon as possible.

I have always wanted to see new Star Trek shows that were set in the universe but weren't about a Federation crew having a new adventure each episode. Follow a merchant crew. Follow a colony. Deep Space Nine was an excellent idea, but that show had a really slow start before it finally got good, and then it only stayed good for a season or so before it kinda fell apart again, probably because they were hemorrhaging viewers due to the previous couple of seasons being sorta "meh" and they felt like they needed to start blowing shit up. Or something.

I really liked the idea of Voyager. They get thrown out into some completely alien section of the galaxy where nothing at all is recognizable and predictable. You could have done pretty much anything at all with that show, inventing new races and new worlds and letting the writers some up with all kinds of crazy and exciting things. And then they fucked it all up and turned it into Little Ship Fights The Borg: The TV Show. Fuck the borg. The borg would have been great if TNG had forgotten about them after that one Q episode. They are possibly the worst thing to ever happen to star trek.