The Island   
 

Lincoln Six Echo: Ewan McGregor

Jordan Two Delta: Scarlett Johansson

Albert Laurent: Djimon Hounsou

Merrick: Sean Bean

McCord: Steve Buscemi

 

Directed by Michael Bay

 

Screenplay by Caspian Tredwell-Owen and Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci

 

 

Why did I actually think Michael Bay was capable of creating something decent.  He's taken decent ideas and run them all into the ground with his frenetic directing style and his inability to tell a story.  But with an impressive cast, I figured there would be a chance that something good could happen.  I was, of course, wrong.

The Island begins with an interesting idea.  People are living in an artificial utopia with lives managed by superiors and they live for the lottery drawing that will take them to the last hospitable place on Earth, the Island.  The beginning of the movie sets all this up and slowly reveals to the audience what is actually going on.  The main two characters are Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Scarlett Johansson (Jordan Two Delta), and as they learn more of the truth, so do we. 

However, Bay and the screenwriters feel it is necessary to explain everything through technician McCord (Steve Buscemi) after everything has become completely clear.  Thus, the movie's first part, and any hope for a legitimate sci-fi thriller, comes to a screeching halt, paving the way for the rest of the movie.

Does the final half try to pose interesting questions about the role of life and power?  Of course not, this is Michael Bay, remember.  The movie turns into a hardcore, laughable action flick.  One chase scene after another as these neophyte beings suddenly possess the skill of secret agents everywhere.  One key scene is mistakenly played for pure white-knuckle tension and fails miserably, whereas making it both contemplative and thrilling would have been much more effective.  I don't think the word contemplative works within Bay's vocabulary.

As much as I love Scarlett Johansson, she's not even able to rise above the material here, having to settle to be mere eye candy rather than an integral part of the movie.  And for the film's resolution, Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou) changes his mind midstream and saves everybody.  We are not given one clue about his motives throughout the movie until his one major scene of dialogue to set up what the film needs him to do.

After this movie came out, it was soon noted that this was practically a straight-up, unauthorized remake of some B-movie that came out several years ago.  The producers also started pointing the finger at the stars (or lack thereof, so they claim) for its anemic box office take.  Maybe people are just now starting to get wise to the hack behind the camera.  The problem with Michael Bay is that his films had always made money.  Hopefully, this is the first in a string of flops that will eradicate this director from Hollywood.