The Island
Yeah I didn’t get around to seeing this movie (The Island) till a few weeks after it was released. Why, well basically I only really like to see movies with at least one of my friends, it is just part of the experience for me. However none of my friends really wanted to go and see it, it baffled me.
I’ll say that it does fit in the mold of a Michael Bay movie. The story is well not the highlight of the film. If’n you don’t know it, The Island is about a colony of clones that are created under the false pretence that the world is a desolate place, covered by some type of infection. They are all hoping to go to “the island” the one place on earth that is contaminate free. Well of course a couple of them get out and they must bring down the evil corporation that has these clones imprisoned and is violating international law. Said evil corporation must go through all the extreme measures to make sure that the clones don’t do that so that they can stay in business and continue to make billions of dollars. Like I said it is not the highlight of the film.
The Island stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as the two leads. As far as sci-fi/action movies go they do excellent jobs, particularly McGregor. There were two supporting roles that I was more interested in that of Steve Buscemi (whom I never tire of) and Djimon Hounsou (whom I can’t get enough of). Steve plays a worker at the clone colony who befriends the Ewan clone, doesn’t say why he does this but just so you know it is so the clones have someone to go to when they break out of the colony. Not the best written character but every moment that he is on the screen it makes the movie better, Steve just has this weird charisma and ability to really nail these little niche type characters, he has an oddity and eccentricity that is great on the screen. Djimon Hounsou plays an ex-delta merc whom the evil corporation hires to hunt down and “solve” their security breach. I’d seen Djimon before in movies like Gladiator and Deep Rising but it wasn’t until In America that I became enamored with him and his screen presence. He can dominate a scene and in the Island he does just that.
As for Bay’s direction well it is what you would expect from Bay provided you’ve seen his other movies. When you see his name in the trailer or on the poster you kind of know what to expect, like when you see Spielberg on them you expect greatness. Well when you see Bay you expect slick big Hollywood action- unfortunately this summer those posters seem to be lying to us. (Yes if your keeping tabs that was a double slam on Bay/Spielberg) The Island is like Bay light; no it is like Bay lite. There were some major action pieces but they all seemed like steps back from the content of Bad Boys II (yes I liked that movie and it was one of my favorite of last summer). During the escape of the clones from the facility there was one scene that stuck with me as far as action and truth be told it was pretty tame, but the rest of the action was well pretty white bread if you ask me.
This movie was somewhat disappointing, even for a Bay fan I give it a 63 D-.