Review of The Island (2005) by Spangle — 12 Aug 2016

The first half is terrific and incredibly smart, but the second half devolves into a series of explosions and action movie cliches and is more along the lines of what one would expect from Michael Bay.

It is tragic because you can see the good movie get blown up in one of the many explosions and if anything is heartwrenching here, it is the loss of the dearly departed quality film. Instead, the film's second half kills the first half by being poorly written and incredibly formulaic.

The first half, on the other hand, introduces a very interesting world with a compelling premise. Here, the acting is very good and mystery abounds as you try to figure out the secrets behind the world.

As the film progresses, however, it turns out this one is just a redo on previous science fiction films and it has nothing up its sleeves but fool's gold. Plus, Michael Bay's hard on for explosions is overwhelming in the second half, which is really too bad because I could have still enjoyed a wholly derivative science fiction film with such good acting, production design, and special effects.

Sadly, I did not get this and instead got a loud, bombastic action film that only Michael Bay can make. For action junkies, The Island should deliver the requisite explosions. For others, shut it off after an hour.