 |
|
|
|
The Island (2005)
 email this review to a friend
Movie Review by AJ 
April 13th, 2006
|  |
First, he gave us an in-depth account of how one annoying buddy cop can take star cred from the other, less annoying buddy cop in Bad Boys. Then he turned Alcatraz into a deeply philosophical video game arcade for Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery in The Rock. He then revitalized the popularity of that old standby "Leaving On a Jet Plane" while also lacing the story with the subtle notion that, yes, the United States of America is the only country in the world that can stop impending global disaster (of course!) in Armageddon. After that, he wowed audiences with his stunning revelation that not only did the Japanese attack a military installation on December 7, 1941, they also attacked the wholesome ideals of two prettyboys in love with the same supermodel nurse in the heartbreaking (in more ways than one) Pearl Harbor. And, in 2003, he revisited his original buddy cop subjects for another thought-provoking analysis, which came to the conclusion that the short one got even more annoying in the eight years since with Bad Boys II. This time, with his new work of bewildering monotony descriptively titled The Island, he delivers a wickedly bland satire on modern consumerism and conformity. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Bay is back in full swing. For the love of Bruckheimer, why?
The film takes place in a sparkly, shiny utopian society where, apparently, the outside world has been contaminated (that's as descriptive as that gets). However, there is one exception, the sought-after Island of the title. In fact, the lives of each member of the society are completely ruled by the desire to get to the Island...every day, at random intervals, there are lotteries in which "winners" are chosen to pack their bags and head on off to where the sun shines and the air is clean. All seems to be well in paradise.
However, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) is having unsettling dreams of something called "Renovatio"...something that seems very familiar to him. This troubles bigwig psychologist Merrick (Sean Bean), but he tells Lincoln just to shrug it off and continue the dull routine of his day-to-day life. But, after being fueled by remarks from his maintenance worker buddy McCord (Steve Buscemi, in one of the roles he tries to make money with before heading back to his usually high caliber of filmmaking), Lincoln becomes even more curious. He begins questioning everything around him, and eventually discovers that there is no Island...those who get chosen as winners are taken and harvested for replacement organs for their "sponsors." In other words, they're all insurance policies so that if someone's kidneys begin to fail, they are chopped up and killed for their perfectly healthy kidneys. Terrified, Lincoln takes his best friend Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) and tries to run from...well...the dudes in charge of whatever's going on. Not all is made terribly clear.
As you can tell, the plot isn't actually that original. It's basically Logan's Run peppered with bits of The Matrix (the clone production plant seems strangely similar to the cavernous operation run by the sinister machines) and Fahrenheit 451 (there is a brief and muddled attempt somewhere down the line at parodying censorship that really doesn't even merit much of a mention). However, a good director and a talented screenwriting team should be able to make at least a decent film from a worn-out premise. No such luck with The Island...all we get is a lot of really quick (and unusually pretentious for Michael Bay, who tries to sandwich meaning in between lightning-fast image flashes) editing and horrible dialogue. And we also get plenty of product placement; it's some of the most blatant I've seen in years...in fact, in all the time I've ever spent watching film. You remember the highly obvious product placement in Wayne's World? Well, that was as obvious as it was because it was a joke, and an hilarious one, too. Well...the product placement in The Island is much, much more blatant than that in Wayne's World, and it isn't a joke. It's dead serious commercialism of the most obnoxious variety. In the hands of a more capable director, it could've been a sly jab at consumerism since, of course, as I said before, that's the theme of the story. Unfortunately, this is Michael Bay. "Michael Bay" and "capable director" are far from synonymous.
Of course, this being a Bay film, we also gets plenty of explosions and high-speed chases. For every interesting thought put into the screenplay by writers Alex Kurtman, Roberto Orci, and Caspian Tredwell-Owen, we get at least a dozen super-stylized action sequences...which means there are about thirty-six of those. What's interesting and disappointing is that Kurtman and Orci are both writers for TV's Alias...and, from the few episodes I've seen, it's usually an energetic, fascinating tangle of surprising twists.
--Full review at REELPICKS.CJB.NET--
email this review to a friend
Comment on this Review:
Sorry, you must be a member to add comments to reviews.
Join or Login. |
 | Jessica
Jan 31, 2007 10:22 PM
| |
| I didnt really like it the 1st time around ... it was better the 2nd time!!! |
 Subscribe to MatchFlick Movie Reviews through RSS
|
