The Island follows Lincoln 6 Echo and Jordan 2 Delta as they unmask their sterile, white protected world as an organ-harvesting clone farm for the well-to-do. Lottery winners do not go to the only contamination-free tropical island left after a global epidemic, they go under the knife and are disposed of. First, they escape. Having gained their freedom, they break back in to undermine the corporate plot.
I'm sure you all know how I feel about the Bay/Bruckheimer school of filmmaking. Not my cup of tea. Yet, this is the first one that I have viewed with a real critical eye. I have to say I am a bit conflicted.
Technically, this is a great movie. Every shot is a beautiful shot. Great cinematography. Great camera direction. So slick. So perfect. However, I have seen this movie before. It was called Logan's Run. It was called Coma. THX-1138. The Matrix. 1984. Heck, they even copped the speeders from Return of the Jedi. They took anything and everything that was great or unique about those films and glossed them up.
So, if the theft is so blatant, why am I conflicted? Because Logan's Run was horrible. Coma is badly dated (directed by Michael Crichton, BTW). It's not a terrible thing for them to get an update. THX and the rest are so iconic and influential, it's tough to avoid referencing them. I've done it myself. Some of the references are so direct (the rising Red sun form the end of THX), I'll give Bay the benefit of the doubt and called them homages.
So, at this point you might say it's a wash. A movie worth seeing once, but not worth owning. Writing breaks the tie, and that can be summed up in Lincoln's first encounter with the outside world. In a dive bar on the outskirts of Tucson, Lincoln tries to find his only contact in the outside world. He is told that he is "in the can," "taking a dump." "He's in a can?!" "Taking a dump where?" "I've got to go, he's in a can, taking a dump!"
Apparantly, so was Michael Bay when this movie was written.
3 comments:
Great review. There have been a lot of so-so science fiction films lately. I forgot about The Island. I'd like to see it, but your last few lines made me think twice.
I'd rather just see THX again.
You'd get a lot more out of THX. Honestly, this movie is all entertaining. There were some interesting sci-fi concepts, but they didn't make you think, or fell, for a single second.
We all rented this Friday night. I agree with your review. Brock and I made the most of the movie with Bourbon and hilarious commentary. Well, hilarious to us at the time, anyway.
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