Review of The Island (2005) by Daniel P — 18 Aug 2011

"My name is Lincoln Six Echo. I'm your insurance policy.".

The Island is Michael Bay's best film. That's faint praise, but praise it is - Bay actually comes close to telling a cohesive story here, his "fuck it to death" editing is slightly less hyperactive, and there are actually one or two eloquent points made. For its first hour The Island is a surprisingly thoughtful, if derivative, film on the controversial subject of cloning and a possible future where clones are 'harvested' as insurance policies for the 'originals' should they become ill and need, for example, guaranteed organ matches. The concept is examined fairly well and there's some interesting touches. There's also nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it is involving. Sadly, the second hour deteriorates into a standard chase film, replete with ineffective CGI and McGregor and Johansson yelling "Run!!" and "Go!!" each other a lot. Whilst there is excitement, it's a shame that a potentially interesting film is forgotten when the action sequences take over. There are other problems with the film as a whole; excessive product placement, plot holes, woefully bad extras acting, but some of these were easier to overlook in the first hour. McGregor and Johansson are pretty good but clearly aren't in this for their art; none of the other performance register. The comedy aspects are, as usual for Bay, piss-poor, and there's still a faint whiff of homophobia and racism that would later be much more at the forefront of his execrable Transformers flicks. The likes of The Matrix (for action) and Never Let Me Go (for thoughtful drama) explore similar themes rather better. But I think three stars is fair.