| Film Review | Dana Place |
The Island
Lincoln Echo Six (Ewan McGregor) and his best friend Jordan
Delta Two (Scarlett Johansen) 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. (director) Michael Bay 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 Johansen (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
Johansen was in the movie. And for that reason…
On a rating system of one to ten stars, I give “The
Island” 2 stars.
