Older Reviews- The Island

This film starts out as your typical science fiction opener, a calm scene with a vague idea what’s actually going on. The two main characters Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) find themselves in a secure facility after the end of the world. The facility is fairly standard futuristic technology, with the hologram screens, white walls and furniture, and creepy security guards. The facility is supposedly in existence to find and protect the survivors of a pathological apocalypse, as well as funnel the survivors off to the last “clean” place on earth, the Island.

There are only two ways to get to this mythical island, though only one of them is ever mentioned outright, and the other is seen in and assumed from the plot. One of the residents can either win the lottery, a random draw of a person to go to the island, or if a pregnant woman goes into labor, she is instantly sent to the island. Before you start thinking that the easy solution is to get pregnant, the inhabitants of this facility actually don’t know how babies are made. And now is where we see the Mr. Evil of the movie, Dr. Merrick. I’m sorry, but if they were going for a plot twist here, they should have made it less obvious. First, when the “kind” doctor looks as evil as Sean Connery does to Alex Trebek in celebrity jeopardy, you know something's not right. The entire setup is pretty obvious, so anyone who doesn’t see this coming is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Jordan wins the lottery, hip hip hurray! She’s told to pack her things and get ready for paradise. Meanwhile Lincoln follows a bug up the ventilation shaft to the evil laboratory of the facility… the medical wing. There, he sees a pregnant woman give birth, and witnesses the miracle of life, only to see her die of lethal injection a few seconds later. This sends him running to save the life of his good friend Jordan.

And now we can say, let the action begin! For those of you that go to a movie to see things blow up, this is where you wake up from your nap. For those of you that actually enjoy the plot, I hope you enjoyed the film up until now, because it’s about to go to hell in a hand basket… literally. The entire film now follows the classic action movie plotline, not even bothering to switch things up even a tiny bit. I’ll admit that as a 20 year old guy and pyro chem. major, I appreciate the occasional explosion and little bits of action here and there. However, Michael Bay takes it to a whole new level, turning a movie that could have had both a better than average plot and amazing action, to a film with more action than even I could stand. And keep in mind he fits the action into the last hour of the film, so by the end you’re a bit sick of it.

Now it’s time for some actual comments on the film. The movie starts out with an above average plot setting, and some fairly decent character development. However, once we get about forty-five minutes in, everything becomes chase scenes and things going boom. This is a film where there are many casualties near the end, and one of them is the plot. The plot line in the beginning holds so much potential that is eventually put to waste. My final advice on this movie is this. If you like lots of action and a little bit of plot, fast forward and you’ll like it. If you like plot, and some action, you’ll enjoy it. You won’t love it, and you might be disappointed to see such unfulfilled potential, but you’ll enjoy it.

Grade: B+ Despite my rant, it was a decent film, it just could have been so much better.
Reviewed by Thomas Jenkins