The Island

—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections

—Review by Kevin Miller
—Review by Jacob Sahms
—Review by Tim Spanburg

If you’re looking for some fun, thrilling, intense action this summer, you won’t find a better a destination than The Island. Sure Michael Bay’s latest film has its share of problems, but then you weren’t expecting an Oscar contender, were you? (I mean, c’mon, it’s Michael Bay.) However, The Island is loads of fun and full of exactly what you expect from Michael Bay (i.e. lots of stuff blowing up). In fact, this is perhaps one of his best films to date.

Without giving too much away, The Island focuses on two escaped clones, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson). These clones have realized that their perfect, utopian society is nothing but a sham and that they are nothing more than parts for the people who purchased them. Of course, this discovery doesn’t sit well with them, and so they run…and run…and run. In fact, after awhile I got tired of the characters yelling at each other to run. It seemed like an obvious thing to do, especially since things keep blowing up around them as they run. The whole film as a very Logan’s Run like feel to it, and if you’ve liked other chase films such as The Fugitive or Minority Report, you should find plenty of enjoyment in The Island.

The first part of the movie moves a little slow, but during this period, Michael Bay does an excellent job of setting things up. We get a good idea of who the characters are, what their situation is, and so when they start running, it feels more intense because we know what’s at stake. After the first half-hour or so goes by, the movie kicks into high-gear and doesn’t allow you to catch your as the two escapees leave a trail of destruction in their wake. The last part of the film is the weakest, and ruins the pacing of the rest of the film. Like so many other movies this summer that have had trouble with a good ending, The Island could have been about twenty-minutes shorter and been much improved for it. There were some loose ends that needed to be tied up, but that could have been alluded to instead of shown. I guess Michael Bay felt that the movie needed a more altruistic ending (apparently the original ending didn’t test well with audiences, so it was changed two weeks before release). One thing that I found unfortunate was Bay’s use of a handheld camera during some of the chase and action scenes. This technique has become so trendy lately that it’s rarely used effectively anymore. Bay employs the technique well for the most part, and it does lend a certain intensity to the chases, but I felt that it was slightly overused. A little less of the handheld would have gone a long way. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the disorientating overused handheld of the Bourne Supremacy, which didn’t let you actually see any of the cool action that’s going on, but it does get distracting.

Ewan McGregor turns in an excellent performance, without any linger trace of his Obi Wan Kenobi alter ego. In fact, the scenes where Lincoln Six Echo meets his sponsor (the person who had him cloned) are amazingly convincing because of how Ewan McGregor interacts with…well, himself. He has tiny, subtle nuances of accent and mannerisms that set apart the clone and the original, and as they interact, it’s some of the most entertaining moments in the film. Scarlett Johansson does a good job with what she has, but she’s pretty much the eye-candy of the film who gets to perform some heroics towards the end. Sean Bean does a competent job playing the role of the slimy cooperate executive who wants to keep his product (the clones) from getting out of hand and ruining his business. One of my favorite characters turned out to be Djimon Hounsou (you might recognize him from Gladiator) who’s hired to chase down the missing clones. Michael Bay has a gift for using certain camera angles and filming techniques to make a character look like one bad dude that you don’t want to mess with, and he gets plenty of this treatment in the film. He also brings some of the more thoughtful moments to the film, although they are few, far between, and don’t last long.

The Island excels as an action film, and it even has several great lines that are both cool and hilarious at the same time, which of course is the hallmark of any good action movie. There’s a car chase that ranks among the best ever, and many of the chases on foot are intense enough that even if you aren’t on the edge of your seat, you’ll still feel relief when there’s a slight lull. The Island also tries to delve into deeper territory, but most of that feels like its done out of obligation more than anything else. Since the story deals with clones, there are the obligatory references to whether or not it’s ok for man to play God, but one of the more interesting themes is that of survival. People fear death, and they’ll do anything to cheat it. In the future, people make clones of themselves so whenever they need something to help extend their life and looks (skin, liver, heart, lungs, whatever) they can just cash in their “insurance policy� and get the parts they need. According to the Press Relations officer of the biotech company that makes these clones, a person can extend their life 60 to 70 years by taking out one of these “insurance policies.� This is not as far fetched as it may seem. There have already been reports of people paying to use cryogenics to extend their life, and with cloning technology becoming more sophisticated every day, the premise of The Island isn’t that implausible.

However, even with the help of cloning technology, eventually we’ll all die. We can spend all the money we want on all the latest technology, and even if it were to extend our lives for centuries, sooner or later this world will end and death will come for us all. I know, it’s not exactly a cheery thought, and perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but here’s some good news: there is a way to cheat death, but it doesn’t have anything to do with technology or how much money you have. It has everything to do with your heart. Not literally, of course, but spiritually. Jesus Christ came to this planet to live, die and live again so that we can have the option of living forever with Him. The characters in The Island often say that people will do anything to survive, but that isn’t necessarily true. Some will do anything except consider even the possibility that something so simple as believing the two thousand year old claims of a unique man might be the key to living forever. You can run from death all you want, but unless you run in the right direction, or this case to the right Person, death will eventually catch you.

I had a fantastic time at The Island, even despite some of its problems, shallowness and too long ending. It’s not a true science fiction film in so far that it really doesn’t deal with the issues of cloning directly perse. There’s no real morality debate, or theological debate. No investigation into the impact it has on humanity and its course through history, although those things are touch upon briefly. The Island is, however, a true action movie full of thrills, fun, great lines and cool moments. It may not be worth a full-price ticket, that’s perhaps more a matter of taste, but it’s definitely worth a matinee, especially if all you want this summer is a little fun at the movies.

—Overview