When did sci-fi flicks become very slightly techie "Law & Order" episodes?
While I'm pretty sure I've been in high school detentions before that seemed harder to escape from than the facilities in this movie, I do think it's neat to be able to watch made-for-FX movies on DVD before they hit rotation because I can pause them and stuff since I don't go for the whole TIVO thing.
As for science, mostly this movie proves that you can probably get Ewan (and thus a number of "sure I'll do a movie with Ewan" actors) to act in your movie if you let him ride a hover-bike or some other really cool toy. Oh, wait, we already kinda knew that from Star Wars. Nevermind.
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This is horrendous.
Added 10/12/2009
Where to start? The storyline is unoriginal, the dialogue is feeble, the direction is pathetic, the consistency of plot and dramatic detail absent, the acting neglible.
The film centers on clones 'manufactured' in order to provide body parts to compensate for malfunctioning real humans. It is a silly sensationalist plot. It is something comparable to '1984' or 'Brave New World' but without the originality or intelligence. The finding of bodies in vats inspires no emotion - we have seen this all before, e.g. in the Matrix, big deal!
The unfolding of the plot mainly involves implausible explosions and random killings. One character, who helps the two leads, is shot in broad daylight by supposedly covert clone assassins who are instructed not to draw attention to what is actually going on regarding the company and its illegal cloning techniques. So, I don't understand - a guy that could give them information about the clones and is not resisting they just randomly shoot so as to draw as much attention as possible to what they are doing?
More explosions ensue...more killings of innocent people...more random dialogue...eventually the assassin shoots the 'sponsor' (cloned person) rather than the clone when really he doesn't have to kill anyone - why not shoot him in the leg if you are going to shoot - why go for the heart?
Towards the end we have an Agent Smith vs Neo scene in which McGregor's character responds to being called by his clone name by the evil head honcho by saying "My name is Tom Lincoln". It puzzles me why he should do this since Lincoln (the sponsor) tried to have him killed only moments earlier, why would this be so emotionally relevant?
The acting is appalling - McGregor and Johansson are characteristically bad but Bay makes it impossible for them to be fair. One might understand Megan Fox's recent disgust at Bay's directing based on this film although there is no way I would waste more of my life watching his rubbish. Really this film is unbelieveably poor, I mean it truly defies belief how shabby a film it is.
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Big, Dumb and Full of Crap
Added 9/24/2009
Oh dear, yet another awful Michael Bay movie. Like all of his films 'The Island' is both very Big and very, very Dumb.
The Big: Well this film is massive in terms of its superficial flashy design. It looks a billion dollars and pretty much every moment is superbly well realised. Only the Americans can do this kind of total, balls out blindingly impressive stuff. And it's a long film too. You get a colossal amount of bangs for your bucks as vehicles explode in sheets of flame and tearing metal, buildings collapse and shatter into constellations of twisted sparkling shards of glass and heroes weave crazily in and out of the heaving maelstrom. Get the picture? It's just so overdone. Camera moves slide and out and veer as in a lunatic's dream. Even the quiet moments are beautifully designed but the whole monstrosity bears the brutally stamped imprint of US megalomania.
Which is fine if you're drunk and just want a seemingly endless burst of strobing violence interspersed with utterly weak and forgettable interludes.
Which brings us on to The Dumb: And how truly dumb this film really is. The script is so bad it seems written by a toddler. The plot (if you can call it that) revolves around the farming of cloned humans for their organs. And that's it. Nothing else. There are no revelatory leaps of vision. Not even a second act. Just chuck your stars into the mess and make them run, run, run. This might be a laugh if it was ironic or self-aware but this film has absolutely no brains. They even steal a moment from an old Star Trek movie and use it as a set piece. The direction is also similarly tragic. It stumbles about and falls on its backside so often that this film looks like a bunch of TV commercials badly stuck together.
And what of the actors? Well I'm happy they got the work and were paid very well but I was a little disappointed to see the marvellous Sean Bean (cast as The Nasty English Villain) die horribly yet again. Scarlett Johannson gets to look gorgeous (but is mostly made to scream a lot) and Ewan McGregor gets to show off his total inability to master foreign accents.
This is a heinous waste of time and money and I shudder to think how many millions of tons of carbon dioxide it's production pointlessly shoved into the atmosphere. I imagine Michael Bay as some kind of hideous blob on a yacht somewhere with his ignorant friends getting off on how rich and talented they are.
Rich he may be but there ain't much talent here. A film for dim-witted Republicans only.
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OK for Michael Bay
Added 8/17/2009
The Island / B000BO0LH2
*Spoilers*
Love him or hate him, you generally know what you're getting into with a Michael Bay movie: lots of action, quite a few cliched one-liners, and at least one or two plot holes so big you could drop a cow through them. And I don't mean that in a bad way - fun, mindless action is a valid and amusing way to spend a weekend evening. "The Island" is a step above many Michael Bay movies, though, in possessing a very thought-provoking philosophy underneath all the explosions and whizzing bullets.
Not that the plot holes don't impinge heavily, of course. The clones being grown for extra parts are kept placid and calm with hypnotic suggestions that they want to go to the island, that they live to go to the island, that they don't need to think or question their surroundings. While the issue of "Why don't you just grow them in a vat?" is touched upon and discarded (the organs need stimulus in order to thrive), one wonders perhaps why they don't just give up this whole island scheme and just hypnotize the clones to want to serve as useful and happy organ donors. I can hear the objection of human survival instincts, but there have been plenty of death cults in the history of humanity and it seems like it wouldn't be too tricky to engineer one in this situation. Then you would have the The Restaurant at the End of the Universe situation where you can cut right through the issue of "is it moral to eat meat?" by having a cow that actually *wants* to be eaten, and is capable of saying so to the expensive clients.
But I digress, and really "The Island" is better as a metaphor for the current debate as to whether poor people should be allowed to sell their own organs in order to support their families. In this metaphor, "going to the island" would mean giving up your life to provide a better one for your family, and in this case the whole "but they are human, too!" rejoinder cuts just as harshly (if not more so) as with vat-grown clones.
Realistically, though, any philosophy in "The Island" takes a firm back seat to the action. Male characters like fast things that go "vroom!" loudly, simply because they are male, and female characters are sweet and pretty and emotionally sensitive because that kind of stuff is handed out with the second X chromosome. But in true Michael Bay form, the excessive action is lavishly expensive action, and the special effects are spaced out with extremely good acting on the part of all the major actors. In light of all this, it's hard to get too nitpicky about the plot holes like the fact that memories are encoded into DNA and ancillary bad guys don't usually have major changes of heart at the last moment. View "The Island" for what it is - a pretty, if somewhat vacuous, destination that is worth a nice visit, even if you wouldn't want to live there.
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The Island
Added 6/30/2009
Through two clones, Lincoln and Jordan, *The Island* touches on current issues about humanity, what it means to be human, the role of science. What I love most about this film is the the sometimes subtle but often unsubtle allusions and symbols with corresponding music to get the point across. References to Nazi Germany, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, *Fahrenheit 451* (loosely), and slave-owner imagery make this powerful and emotive. Even without a sound understanding of how these elements play out, the movie works on its own merits with dynamic, real characters (except for one or two), fast-moving plot, and satisfying ending.
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Blu-ray is region free--will play on U.S. players
Added 8/13/2009
This review focuses on the Blu-ray Disc format, not the movie itself (which is quite good, entertaining, full of plot twists, etc.). I ordered a copy from the Amazon U.K. site based on the positive comments of another reviewer--and YES--this is truly a "region free" Blu-ray Disc. It WILL play on your standard Blu-ray player sold in the United States (which was primarly designed to play 'Region A' discs). I put the disc in my Sony player--and, there was no problem whatsoever--the video and audio are excellent--well worth the price. I paid about twenty dollars, including shipping--a much better price than listed in the U.S. site.
Perhaps "The Island" will eventually be released in the U.S. on Blu-ray (why it hasn't yet been released in the U.S. makes no sense--who makes these decisions?), but for now, ordering directly from Amazon.uk.com is an excellent alternative.
By the way, the excellent 1966 (true story/adventure/historical drama) movie "Zulu" is another "region free" Blu ray Disc that looks absolutely stunning in Blu ray--it is one of the best in my collection--as good as the new movies. You can also order "Zulu" from Amazon's United Kingdom site at a reasonable price.
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the one star is not for the movie, it is the price
Added 7/15/2009
First i thought it was a tipping-error 56 USD, but they really mean it.
I like amazon, but in that case, they are nuts or robbers,maybe both? so i have to wait, until they made a special sale of the movie. I hope so.
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The Island Blu-ray Import
Added 6/18/2009
This review is simply to discuss the differences between the DVD and Blu-ray versions of this film. It's made a nice transition over to hi-def both visually and sonically. Unfortunately, it didn't seem as though they put much effort into the package. The menus are surprisingly bare and it actually doesn't contain a director's commentary like the DVD version. However, it does have the same "Making The Island" featurette. They also divided up the scenes differently for some reason. As for the film itself, there isn't much to say other than if you are looking for two hours of fun, escapist entertainment with loads of eye candy, then you can't really wrong with a Michael Bay film. It's also a nice primer for Transformers, as it's essentially the same creative team. It's tough to recommend this if you already have the DVD version, especially considering the price on Amazon (although I would recommend getting it through a seller on the Marketplace for half the cost), but if you are looking the expand your Blu-ray library then this would certainly be a worthwhile addition.
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