[DVD] - The Island

In the summer 2005 Michael Bay presented another explosive ridden summer extravaganza, whether we asked him to or not. However, this time, instead of taking a steaming dump on World War II he has aimed his sights into the future and looks into the ethics of using clones. The final product ends up being this miss-mash of a dumb action movie that you have to turn your brain off for and a lesson in the possible future ramifications of cloning technology which is something that should be taken in a thoughtful direction. While this movie was intelligent for a summer action flick, Gattaca it is not.

That is not to say that The Island is a horrible movie. It certainly isn’t. I could think of many worse ways to spend two hours and there are moments that are quite enjoyable. Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor play insurance policy clones who live only until their rich owners need them for an organ. The clones are all educated to the point where they can take care of basic needs, but keep them childish enough to keep them malleable. Both of our leads play this quite well and Scarlett has a few moments of utter cuteness due to her sheltered life. There are also some really good supporting roles including Steve Buscemi, and a wicked villain portrayal by Sean Bean (its not really a stretch for him but if ain’t broke…). The characters play well off each other and its easy to root for the good guys and hiss the bad guys like any melodrama.

I think that there are two main problems with the movie. The first is that the movie felt contrived in places. I felt that Lincoln’s (MacGregor) journey from a clone with a 15 year old’s education to someone who can pilot any vehicle and talk his way out of any situation. There is a little explanation about how he is gaining memories from the original person, but that’s about as far as the explanation goes. As to whether this is due to a psychic link or some sort of shared soul remains up to the viewer to make up. I mean they didn’t have to totally explain it but it would have been nice if a few theories were thrown out there. Overall the movie asks you to think sometimes and turn off your brain other times and watch the pretty explosions. It can’t decide whether it wants to be dumb or smart and it usually ends up more toward the previous.

The second problem I had with the movie is that the action scenes seemed flat. I think it has something to do with the fact that there’s really nothing in this movie that hasn’t been done more interestingly in another sci-fi movie. For instance there’s a big highway chase were our heroes end up getting on a police hover-cycle thing that not only feels reminiscent of a Star Wars vehicle but makes the exact same noises as a pod-racer. There were a few moments of cool, but mostly the action just fell short of expectation. That is probably worst flaw about the movie. If the action was good enough short comings in plot and hyper-character arcing could have been more easily ignored.

Mostly its a dumb movie trying to be something smarter and its an action movie that plays better when the action slows down. All in all its not bad, its kinda good but its almost entirely due to a stellar cast.

Rating: C

No masterpeice, but I thought it was a smart and well done bit of film making that transcended the “summer blockbuster” mold. I liked it quite a bit.

But, there was explaination for why he was able to pilot the bike. When he was sleeping he saw flashes of his self in many different vehicle and being on the bike made him remember how to do it.

Also, He really wasn’t that great at talking his way out of stuff, he just did what he had to do to survive. I think the point is that humans are capable of a lot of thing when trying to survive.

Yes. But not a very good one.

Well, did you really need more of a explaination.

Not more… better.

So, you wanted him to see himself actually learning to fly in his flash backs. I guess there could have been a quick flash back scene when he got on the bike, and that would have been better.

It was interesting, when I watched the movie on my own, it was more interesting then when I watched it with other people.