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The Island review
2005.08.03 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Reviews | by Andrew Cole
Which way to the island? [official site] |
Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are strangely naive inhabitants of an insular dystopia, hoping to be allowed to leave it for a tropical paradise in The Island. Part sci-fi thriller, part balls-to-the-wall action pic, the movie struggles for an identity, more or less successfully.
The first half of the movie is basically a retelling of THX1138; for the kiddies' sake, the violence, sex, and forced medication are replaced with intimidation, flirtation, and a nasty lunch lady, but the effect is largely the same—only much, much lamer. Maggie McOmie's petite naked curves are replaced by five strips of bacon.
It's also surely influenced by Logan's Run and, if the nattering nabobs of the Internet are right, a low-budget 70s howler called Clonus.
The first half of the movie is basically a retelling of THX1138. |
But, at the point where THX is allowed to escape because the pursuit effort is 6% over budget, The Island gets an infusion of German speculator money. If you've seen the trailer, you know that the second half of the movie follows our heroes into the normal world, where they drive really fast and get chased by people who will stop at nothing.
Altho the film's secret is basically out, I won't reveal it here, but I will say that there are a lot of questions surrounding it. The scheme makes some sense, but not a lot, once you start thinking about the purpose and timing of the lottery and such. I may write an in-depth analysis just to complain.
Jeez, don't you want to see Buscemi play a millionaire industrialist once? |
McGregor and Johansson do fine jobs and get support from Sean Bean and Djimon Hounsou as the very obvious bad guys and Steve Buscemi as the weird guy. (Jeez, don't you want to see Buscemi play a millionaire industrialist once?) Ethan Phillips as Jones and Michael Clark-Duncan as Starkweather are great character additions. Phillips is one of those actors you've seen dozens of times in movies and television but whose name you don't know; he does a wonderful and fairly subtle job as the comic relief.
Note: Sean Bean's name is neither pronounced seen been nor shawn bawn. Go figure.
The Island was written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen... [who] I frankly suspect... of being a pseudonym of Stephen King. |
The Island was written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen, whose only other film is the Angelina-Jolie-as-third-world-doctor Beyond Borders—and whose name sounds so made-up that I frankly suspect it of being a pseudonym of Stephen King. It was directed by Michael Bay who hit with Bad Boys and then proceeded to ruin decent material in Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, and Bad Boys 2. Come to think of it, it wasn't decent material.
While it's an enjoyable movie, there was a weird point in The Island where I began rooting for the stunts. There is a highway chase that is so similar to the one in Bad Boys 2 that you may laugh out loud. You should laugh out loud when, as all hell is breaking loose around him, the bad guy shouts into his radio, "Stay on them!" Dedication like that deserves a medal. And you will laugh out loud when our heroes fall from a tall building and are so improbably saved that an on-screen observer has to admit it. "Jesus must love you!" he exclaims. Michael Bay should start putting that line in every one of his movies as a way of explaining how characters perform his ridiculous stunts.
While it's an enjoyable movie, there was a weird point in The Island where I began rooting for the stunts. |
One surprising aspect of The Island is that it overstays its welcome. Normally in a dystopia movie, the movie is over when the heroes escape. Duh. And even if they have to make their way in the outside world, the movie is over once they have found a way to do it. Durr. But The Island keeps chugging along, sending its heroes back to their dystopic world for the inevitable James Bond destroy-the-evil-lair scene.
Thankfully, the movie doesn't get too high-minded and talky. It just goes to the Central Power Generator Thingy and blows it up.... |
These sequences aren't bad, and they work thematically, but they are familiar. And Bay's effects have exhausted us, and apparently himself, because he doesn't have much more to offer. Thankfully, the movie doesn't get too high-minded and talky. It just goes to the Central Power Generator Thingy and blows it up, like every modern sci-fi movie must.
As science fiction, The Island doesn't offer much. We all know dystopias are bad and that a natural life is worth living. As action, the movie is more successful, giving us the thrills and spills we're expecting, even if we've largely seen them before.
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