The Island Review
The island stars Scarlett Johanssen and Ewan McGregor in a role about clones who did not know that they were clones, but after finding out, they are on the run from those who created them to be brought in for parts or to be destroyed.
This was one of the movies that I was really looking forward to this summer. I wanted this to be the thinking action movie that was in a Matrixesque style to get your adrenaline pumping, and you mind to stay focused and try to sort out all of the questions that are laid before you throughout the movie. But this was not that movie. I am not saying that it was a bad movie, far from it. But it just wasn’t what I was expecting. There are some great action scenes, and it looks amazing. The performances are solid, and it is a fun ride, but the plot just leaves a lot to be desired. There are numerous plot holes, and a large amount of points where the unbelievability just overwhelms you. But overall it was an okay movie that I give a 6 out of 10.
Like I said above, the movie was fun. It was a good action movie that looked superb. One thing that I have to say about Micheal Bay’s movies is the fact that it is truly hard to distinguish between what is CGI and what is prop-based. He does an amazing job of not overdoing the effects, but instead using them to liven up the real life articles and props that are used by the actors. The movie visually was stunning. Not just because of the effects, but the use of color and his shooting angles really fit very well into the world that he involves you in.
The movie takes place around 2050 and people who have money have the opportunity to spend a large chunk of it on backup organs created in labs by a scientific facility so that if something happens to them, then they can simply go get their backup heart or lung and replace the one that they have messed up. It is explained later in the movie as to why they don’t just manufacture the organs instead of the people, but it was an effective piece of story, even if it was scripted badly, so I will not let it out. Certain clones in the facility begin to question their existence and all of the things that are around them. From then on, they are on the run and it leads them all over the place.
The action in it was great. There is a chase scene that was one of the best chase scenes I have ever seen. But like I said before, don’t think too much about the storyline or it won’t work out quite as well for you.
The acting was really impressive. How Micheal Bay got this group of actors together I will never know. I mean, Scarlett Johanssen and Ewan McGregor is enough, but he also has Djimon Hounsou and Sean Bean as major players. It was really impressive. They all did a phenomenal job in this movie, but I have to keep coming back to the script as the problem. It was one of those movies that tried so hard to be deep, but then decided about halfway through that it wanted to be an action movie instead, and kind of dropped trying to get the feelings of the characters and their thoughts. Steve Buscemi and Micheal Clarke Duncan are in this movie as well, but they are simply minor characters to push story onward. They both did good jobs, but they could have gotten many other actors to take these roles without forking out the money for them.
It is also a pretty funny movie. A lot of the humor comes from our major characters and the fact that they have been cooped up in a facility all of their lives and do not know how to function outside of the rules they have experienced in their short lifetimes. Why is this funny? Because there are many things about the outside world that they don’t get. They don’t know slang words that are used by outsiders, they don’t know about many of the modern inventions and they also do not know bodily contact other than fighting. Ewan and Scarlett do a great job of keeping that child-like sense of amazement at the smallest things. That was probably the thing that stuck out most positively to me about the plot.
Now, time to get on my soapbox.
Djimon Hounsou was so underused in this movie. He is one of those actors that is so versatile and as far as I know has never had a bad role or done a bad job in the roles he has taken. From Amistad to Gladiator and the more recent Constantine. He is an amazing actor that no one seems to know. How he is not a household name eludes me. The only thing I can figure is that it is a difficult name to say, so people would just rather not say it at all. The guy can play anything with flair and style. He is a great actor and this movie really did not use his acting capabilities to the extent that it could have. I really wanted more about his character and more screentime for him, but instead he was used as a background character to, once again, push the story onward. Okay, so off of that.
The movie was okay. If there had been another writer, it could have been amazing. The box office numbers don’t lie on this one. On its opening weekend it came in at number four. That shows that there just wasn’t enough word of mouth to get this one to shoot up. I would say that the people who wanted to see it saw it on the first day and then were somewhat let down and as a result let other people know not to expect too much out of it. If you want a mindless, and fun film, then I would say to go see this one, but if you want something deeper, then this is not the movie for you. So I give The Island a 6 out of 10.