The Island Movie Review:


Director Michael Bay now has his own version of a Philip K. Dick-type sci-fi movie, and this may be a sign that the genre finally has been fully integrated into the mainstream. Warnings of such a paradigm shift came last year when ”I, Robot” was released as a clumsy melding of sci-fi concepts and action movie. “The Island” is this year's “I, Robot”, and although it more seamlessly integrates and presents its action, its themes are starting to feel like used parts. Tellingly, the film's explosive chase/stunt sequences seem more interesting than the intelligent concepts which should be its core; it's like a small-town rock band hitting it big after sacrificing much of its home-grown charm by becoming more professionally polished.

“The Island” is the latest direct descendant of “Blade Runner” in terms of its central ethical dilemma, i.e., when do we human beings start caring for a synthetic creation that has sentience all its own (which, by extension, means being able to meaningfully increase one's sphere of compassion)? Most of the time, the subjects are robots; here, they're clones. Even so, there's a been-there-done-that feeling that the material can't avoid now; however, this in itself is not necessarily detrimental. But the idea isn't explored in a way that feels intriguing -- and that's what hurts.

Part of this problem results from presentation -- it's a lot of conspicuously borrowed parts. It's as if “The Island” dunked its arms into the well of the sci-fi movie universe and came out with ingredients for a consummate watered-down pastiche. Elements of “Logan's Run,” ”THX -1138,” “The Matrix,” “Blade Runner” and more all show up in one way or another here, from the story concepts to the visuals. To be perfectly honest, it all looks pretty good and goes down easy, but that speaks of its weaknesses as well. Science fiction is meant to be challenging, often with moral dilemmas for the protagonists. In “The Island,” once we establish we're on the side of the escaping clones (and why wouldn't we be?), we just watch the movie run with it and follow along.

If the movie starts out with a grey potential, it's quick to alter its shades to black-and-white for the convenience of the audience. When the mystery is presented at the beginning, the story has all kinds of directions to follow, but by the middle the brain is off and the chase is on. It reaches a fascinating point at the end of the second act -- you'll know what part I mean because you'll be paying a lot more attention to Ewan McGregor. But even here an opportunity to create an ethical challenge is wasted by the movie's eagerness to create another convenient villain. Meanwhile, the third and final act feels out of place for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which involves a character's unconvincing change of heart and an illogical increase in the ingenuity of certain other characters.

At least “The Island” isn't boring. As an action movie, it's a little less macho silly than Bay's collaborations with producer Jerry Bruckheimer (this movie counts as Bay's first flight without him). His actors are more believable in their roles, and his explosive set pieces command the screen as well as they always have. He's assisted by a hazy sunlit cinematography and a presentation of the future as a dystopic utopia -- both evolved from its predecessors “I, Robot” and “Minority Report,” all of which helped to replace dark, neon cyberpunk with gleaming corporation-produced surfaces as the current fashionable vision of the decades to come. Very conspicuous product placement also seems to have found a home in these environments. These are the prices this genre of sci-fi has paid to reach wider audiences. It ups the ante in its attempts to excite its viewers while it gets them to think -- but not as much as it used to.



Jeffrey Chen

Could “The Island” be that “Logan’s Run” remake we have all been waiting for?

“The Island” stars Ewan McGregor as Lincoln Six-Echo, a man who lives in a perfect, yet very strict environment. His utopian world is filled with duties and routines which Lincoln begins to question. How does his perfect world actually operate?

The only real salvation that Lincoln and the people of his controlled world have is a daily lottery where winners are whisked off to the mythical paradise “the island” to live the rest of their lives in freedom. Where is this “island” and what do you do when you get there?

The more questions Lincoln raises the more he begins to doubt his surroundings until he learns that he is in fact living a lie and that he is a clone. Lincoln grabs fellow resident and his friend Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) and they begin to run for their lives. Together they will find out all the secrets that their world hides.

“The Island” is one of those films that the less you know going in the better the experience it will be. The problem with that kind of film is that it’s very hard to market especially when you have a high-profile director like Michael Bay at the helm.

The opening and experiences that Lincoln Six-Echo encounters while still within the utopian society are interesting and really draw you in. Director Michael Bay’s restraint here is actually impressive where we begin to see a story with real substance and he allows his actors to act.

I really enjoyed McGregor and Johansson as the leads in this film and the humanity they bring to their characters. McGregor is one of the most intriguing actors working in Hollywood today and this proves it once again. I can’t imagine what this film would have been like without him. Can you imagine a hack like Colin Farrell in this role? Perish the thought.

The production design and basic plot elements reminded me a lot of the sci-fi classic “Logan’s Run” where the utopian survivors begin to doubt that the outside world is contaminated and that their society is in fact a lie so they must run. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a direct remake but it does house a lot of the same philosophy.

The idea of replacing the whole “dated” nuclear holocaust angle in “Logan’s Run” with this cloning angle is actually very intriguing and seems a perfect way to bring that story into our world and deliver a similar impact it had back in the 1970s.

I was enthralled by “The Island” and started to believe it was the best movie of the summer. For over an hour, I was transfixed to the screen. Then the more the film moved along the more signature Michael Bay shots I started to see. Man stepping from helicopter in slow-mo with blades whizzing above him. A cluttered freeway crash sequence ripped right out of “Bad Boys 2”. And even more explosions and bellowing action stunts that are way, way over the top.

I liked Michael Bay a lot when he was restrained from using his signature stuff and I even believed for a second that he could be a great director if given the right material. But once I started getting hit with Michael Bay mayhem I started to lose touch with the story and the characters. Don’t get me wrong there was also some of the adrenaline junkie stuff I liked but it just seemed tiresome and routine especially the truck sequence.

Surprisingly the product placement in the film didn’t bug me as much as it has been talked about. There are some scenes where I did notice it but for me it wasn’t any worse than it was in “Minority Report”.

I liked “The Island” and a lot of what it had to offer but I think the film should have stuck more with the story and less with the explosions.



So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

Combine two 1970s genre classics (Logan's Run and Coma) with a Michael Bay aesthetic (lots of things go kaboom), and this is what you get. An intelligent, provocative premise wrapped in a bone-chillingly stupid action movie.

In the year 2019, Lincoln (McGregor) lives in a controlled community pieced together after the cataclysmic contamination of the planet. But he has a feeling something isn't right in his monotonous existence, even with the promise of an idyllic island home after a few years of service to rebuilding humanity. When he discovers a way out, he takes his friend Jordan (Johansson) with him, but they're not prepared for the truth about who they really are. And their doctor (Bean) and his henchman (Hounsou) are hot on their trail.

The idea is extremely strong, examining issues of personal responsibility, trust and technological advancement, specifically in areas like cloning and stem-cell research. Although the story offers a rich environment to grapple with these issues, Bay opts for mindlessly overblown action with excessive visual effects and outrageous chase scenes punctuated by hundreds of metal-crunching, high-speed car crashes. Clearly, this silly, juvenile spectacle is the only thing Bay cares about; he continually undermines the fascinating storyline by bending the narrative to include as much mayhem as he possibly can. And when someone dies, for example, they don't merely fall to the floor--they cartwheel off a balcony and spectacularly crash through six layers of splintering glass and crystal.

The cast has obviously read the original script, and they play it extremely well, adding layers of meaning that are continually undermined by Bay's caterwauling direction. Just when McGregor and Johansson are discovering some intriguingly naive romantic chemistry, Bay zooms in for Armageddon-like romantic bombast. Just as Hounsou's character deepens from a mindless thug into something much more interesting, Bay adds an apocalyptic explosion. Just as Buscemi's cranky blue-collar worker decides to do something selfless ... well, you get the idea. The subtext makes the film worth seeing, and the slick production values add entertainment value. But it should have been much, much more than this.

Rich Cline

For the survivors of the contamination, life at the facility was one of order and structure as the few thousand humans that are left try to help the human race recover. This basic life does have a purpose however. Every week there is a lottery spin, were everyone gets the chance to win transportation to the Island, the last uncontaminated habitat on the planet. For Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) this isn’t enough and he wants much more but as his starts to ask questions, the answers he uncovers reveal a terrible truth.

When it comes to big action event movies, Hollywood tends to turn to two men, director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer but can Michael Bay deliver without Bruckheimer backing him up?

You know what to expect with a Michael Bay movie, big action, loads of explosions and larger than life characters and situations. They are never life changing films or ones that will win Oscars but they do tend to entertain. ‘The Island’ is no different but there is something just not quite right with the film.

The premise is a solid one. The organ harvesting from human clones is a science fiction plotline that has relevance in the modern scientific world. Would you like to know that your heart or kidney transplant came from a living, breathing copy of yourself? What if that clone realised what was going to happen to them and wanted to live? These are questions that the film tries to answer but as with all big budget productions, the story is just an excuse to string together more and more elaborate action sequences and ‘The Island’ is filled with them.

When it comes to directing action, Michael Bay is one of the best. He takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride and has done this successfully in the ‘Bad Boys’ movies, ‘Armageddon’, ‘The Rock’ and ‘Con Air’. ‘The Island’ is no different but there is nothing truly original here. When you are watching the film, you can’t help but think that you’ve seen some of the visuals before. The big car chase is very similar to ‘Bad Boys II’, the vision of the future looks like that represented in ‘I, Robot’ or ‘Minority Report’ and the amount of product placement is also similar to ‘I, Robot’ or ‘Minority Report’. This last point is probably the thing that most viewers will notice and what really makes the film suffer. While there are many futuristic designs and inventions, there are far too many modern items in a movie that supposed to be set after 2050. Many of the cars in the chase sequences are cars from the present, standing out next to the ones designed especially for the film. When you see a futuristic truck smash into a current version of the Volvo range, you know that the production has cut some corners.

On the acting front, both Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are good. Both play the naive clones extremely well but you would expect this from two accomplished actors as them. Scarlett makes her action debt and takes the step with ease, showing that quality actors can adapt to any genre. Of course she looks beautiful but is the honesty and goodness that she portrays in the role that makes the character of Jordan Two Delta so watchable. The same can be said of Ewan McGregor’s Lincoln Six Echo but the actor also gets to play the client of the clone, boat designer and adventurer Tom Lincoln and it is the interaction between the two that make for some of the more amusing scenes.

On the supporting side, Sean Bean is again asked to play the villain and he rises to the occasion, even though he might seem to be on autopilot from now and again. Djimon Hounsou is an impressive and imposing figure as hired specialist Albert Laurent. He is an actor that can play type of role and he excels in the action genre. Michael Bay stalwarts Steve Buscemi and Michael Clarke Duncan also noticeable make appearances in smaller roles.

‘The Island’ is an entertaining but flawed Sci-Fi romp. The good performances from the cast make this a lot more watchable however and as with all Michael Bay films, the action is first rate. It is just a shame that the commercial product placement of the film make the film not that futuristic.

Jamie Kelwick

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