Review of The Island (2005) by Jonathanz. — 02 Oct 2005

Oh, Michael Bay. Beloved director of such cinematic masterpieces as Bad Boys II. Despite that, seeing the previews for his latest romp filled me with no small amount of hope, so I rushed off to see the sneak preview.

(I left the theater having enjoyed myself.) Recently, however, I saw the theatrical release with a group of friends, and I found myself with mixed feelings... If you know Bay, you know that car chases, gunfire, and things blowing up usually take priority over everything else--including of course, believable characters and an intelligible plot.

Which is why I was so shocked to find that the first portion of the film is a well done science fiction parable along the lines of Brave New World. Yes, it does draw heavily (or "rip off," as we like to say in the business) from a ton of other cinematic sources, not the least of which being Logan's Run.

For a while, I was blessedly unaware that I was watching a Michael Bay film. Even the score was whimsical and moving, not the generic pulse-pounding shlock that usually goes for a soundtrack in an action movie.

Sadly, however, all good things must come to an end, and after about an hour, the film takes a total schizophrenic turn and starts focusing on explosions and loud noises rather than anything remotely approaching intellectual.

Certain sequences were included just because Bay thought they'd look cool, I'm sure of it. The requisite "passionate" scene was totally nonsensical, because we'd been told that the main characters had no sense of gender awareness.

I'm not saying the first part is perfect, but it trumps the second by a long shot. If you do watch the movie, just be prepared to switch off your higher functions for the latter hour and a half.