THE ISLAND

 

Review by Dana Place

 

Lincoln Echo Six (Ewan McGregor) and his best friend Jordan Delta Two (Scarlett Johansson) live in a Utopian city where they believe they are completely protected from the rest of the world contaminated by radiation, where everyone’s ultimate goal is to win a lottery that entitles them to a place on the “The Island”, supposedly, the only open piece of land in the rest of the world not contaminated.  When Jordan wins the lottery and a trip to the island, Lincoln finds out that “the island” is actually an organ donation plant for the outside world and that they are actually clones designed as replacement parts for other people.  Jordan and Lincoln escape their perfect city and head into the real world to escape the sinister plans of the corporation holding them, and to confront the people they were designed from, all the while being chased by a mercenary team trying to bring them home.

This film is a giant mess.  The catalyst for the entire movie is a series of coincidences so farfetched that is hard to get past the first half hour of the movie.  These coincidences just get bigger and more farfetched as they go along.  The twists and turns are like something out of a Scooby-Doo cartoon and just compound the ridiculousness of the movie.  This being an action movie, you might be able to overlook the plot of the film and just watch stuff blow up real big, but in this case that doesn’t even work.  The movie depends too much on the plot because there are too few actions scenes in the film and the one large action sequence is shot in such a way that makes it hard to follow.  Close up shots of cars being destroyed, Strange shots from inside cars being crushed, it just all came across very cluttered and unsynchronized.  Michael Bay (director) just seems to rehash old car chase scenes from Bad Boys II, this time with a little experimentation that doesn’t seem very cohesive.  Unfortunately, actors that I have enjoyed in other films, Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, The Man Who Wasn’t There), Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, Nightwatch), Djimon Honsou (Amistad, ER), and saddest of all Steve Buscemi (too many to name) and Michael Clarke Duncan (pretty much anything he is in) are all completely misused in this film and could have unfortunately all been replaced with any number of actors.

I know this movie is probably going to make a few hundred million dollars and will likely spawn three or four movies that are pretty much identical to it so I should probably end this review with some kind of silver lining.  Something I can take away from this film and smile about.  The only thing that comes to mind is how incredibly beautiful Scarlett Johansson was in the movie.  And for that reason…

BIGFANBOY.com score - On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, I give THE ISLAND a 2.


Visit the official Warner Bros. THE ISLAND movie website by clicking here.

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