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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Idiot savant film director
Michael Bay proves that he does, indeed, have a
brain with his sci-fi action film "The Island."
While it certainly won't win Bay any Mensa awards,
"The Island" manages to incorporate Bay's
specialty of stunning action sequences with a film
that actually has some content. Set fifty years in
the future, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor),
Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) and other
inhabitants of an underground facility look
forward to the lottery that offers them the chance
to help rebuild humanity on a post-disaster island
paradise. It seems that the rest of the world has
been destroyed by all the noxious chemicals poured
into the environment. Only that isn't the case at
all. Lincolns begins having dreams suggesting
memories of a previous life. He's an inquisitive
fellow and breaks out of his habitat to discover
that the world run by Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean) is,
in fact, a harvesting facility and they are all
clones grown to insure long lives for the wealthy
and those in government. When Jordon Two Delta is
selected for "the island" Lincoln knows he has to
try and save her before she's "harvested" herself.
Although the film borrows quite liberally (some
would call it plagiarism) from the film "Parts:
The Clonus Horror" the screenplay demonstrates an
acute awareness of the moral and ethical
implications of what Dr. Merrick has created.
About midway through the film "The Island"
degenerates into a typical Michael Bay film lite
on content and high on visual thrills but that
doesn't detract from the first strong hour of the
movie. By the end, though, "The Island" fails
simply because it falls back on the clichés of
action movies. For some reason dystopian stories
such as this and "Logan's Run" fail to translate
well to film, which is a pity as there's a rich
story here just waiting to be, well, harvested.
The DVD has a nice solid transfer with occasional
digital artifacts but on the whole "The Island"
looks quite pleasing in this DVD transfer. The 5.1
soundtrack makes excellent use of the format
placing action all around the viewer. The extras
included a documentary on the making of the movie,
which provides an interesting glimpse into how
they created some of the stunts and physical
effects combined with CGI wizardry. Bay also does
a commentary track, which isn't all that
enlightening. If you're a fan of the film I
suspect a double dip due to the lack of extras
included.
Although it isn't brilliant or Earth shattering,
"The Island" is an enjoyable sci-fi ride. I'm
waiting for the sequel. I'd suggest "Gilligan's
The Island" with the premise of this film in which
we finally discover that Gilligan and his
shipmates were rescued after all. We were watching
a series of clones week after week bumble through
their latest adventure. |
