GOOD!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some enthusiastic reviews for Michael Bay's THE ISLAND. Without fail, the call of Plant! will go out, but these reviews aren't the exception to the reviews we've been getting for the last couple months. So, either this movie is actually really good or Dreamworks is undertaking the biggest, most dishonest marketing ploy of all time.
Anyone in the US can see THE ISLAND this Saturday at a nation wide sneak (check your local listings!), so we'll all know soon. In the meantime here are 3 reviews to go over... the first and last being the most spoilerific. Enjoy!
The Bowler is back once again with a sneak peek at another summer blockbuster, Michael Bay's "The Island". After my review of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory a few months ago was quickly labeled a "plant" a fellow gets a bit weary of sending in another one. But I have to tell ya, I've seen myself a great action picture tonight.
The Island opens with very little pizzazz or craziness except a title of "the Island"...no Bruckheimer here folks. Onto a little dream sequence opening with McGregor and Johansson on a boat. This will be very important later, but it brings us into the introduction of the Lincoln Six Echo character's daily routine as he awakes from "night terror" and goes about getting ready. You see all these people living in a "utopia" were saved by this governmental sort of body with their leader played by the evil Sean Bean. The people are all here and told that they were survivors of some kind of disease or catastrophe that wiped out everyone and everything. When a new clone is brought in the people are told that they were saved from the evil outside world that is now too harsh to inhabit and they will live here, in peace and tranquility with everyone else. Funny thing that no one seems to question (except of course our hero) is how they magically keep "finding" survivors when new people appear there.
See, the thing that keeps these people going, keeps them in line, and gets them to all do their job is a seemingly random drawing to go to somewhere, as the title would suggest, called "the Island". What this "island" is is the last untouched paradise where people will go to continue the human race and thrive to survive for everyone else. So, seeing that this is what the people are told of course they would all want to fight to win their spot to get to the island. Here is where the movie takes it's time though, which I liked a lot, to actually let the audience and thus the characters know there really is no island. McGregor's character gets curious after chatting w/ Steve Buscemi (who has a decent sized part and actually helps get them going on the outside) about what is beyond their sector. Well, he conveniently gets past an unguarded ladder and when he follows it up, boom! he's smack dab in the middle of the government labs where they are all being hidden (the clones). It is here where we see that the latest person chosen (Michael Clark Duncan's character) is actually being harvested for his organs. You see, he is the insurance policy for a famous football player in the real world that got badly banged up. As the trailer has all let us know, this surgery does not go so well and thus he tries to escape. In the process McGregor sees this and realizes: THERE IS NO ISLAND.
From here the movie finally gets moving past the introductions to the characters and their world into the questions. Finally, someone is questioning their existence (bad for the people running the place). Now they become aware of McGregor's awareness and try to stop him. Conveniently Johansson's character (a supermodel no less) is now in a coma and needs organs so she is chosen to go to the 'island'. McGregor alerts her to the reality, they escape, and are on the run.
On the outside is the best part of the movie. The action scenes are completely Bay at his finest including the amazing car chase scene where the vehicles are literally torn in half by some giant dumbbell looking things that are pushed off the back of the truck. Once they get into the flying motorcycle it gets very out of hand and chaotic, but the direction keeps it flowing very well and of course Bay does what he does oh so well...he blows shit up.
I'm trying not to give anything away because for once there is a plot for a Michael Bay film (which I could say the same for Armageddon), and it is really quite good and elaborate. If I had to nitpick I would say the only thing that really bothered me was the fact that the ending is completely given away in the trailer and that you would think they'd have tighter security on the people escaping from the main area into the upper parts.
Beyond little problems though, the action scenes were amazing, the dialogue had none of the standard "you just shot up my car" type of things you'd expect during the action scenes as one-liners, and the cast really played the whole innocent thing well. Overall, I would say this was a home run for everyone involved.
Bowler out.
Here's the least spoiler-ish of the three!
Hey all, over at AICN! J-Man here, just back from a workprint screening of Michael Bay's latest migraine headache waiting to happen, called THE ISLAND. We were told beforehand that this was an unfinished version, and that weeks of work had yet to be done before the 7/22 release. I can't imagine what would be left to work *on*.
Anyway. I'm not the biggest admirer of Michael Bay as a producer, and especially not as a director. In fact, I can't stand the man's work: BAD BOYS 2 was one of the worst movies of its year, imho, and PEARL HARBOR was just... awful. As examples. That said, THE ISLAND is terrific. An epic bit of entertainment that somehow doesn't lose that Michael Bay flash I can't hardly stomach, and somehow I didn't mind it so much this time around.
Ewan McGregor is Lincoln Six-Echo, a clone who's beginning to figure out that the world outside may not be as contaminated as he's been lead to believe, and that The Island in question may not be "nature's last remaining pathogen-free zone". And that The Island may not even exist, at all. In other words, he's too inquisitive; asks too many questions. Gets the people in charge of running his Sector nervous. Lincoln wakes up one day missing a shoe (forget it, doesn't pay off), with sodium excess detected in his piss (again, no pay off there), and finds a butterfly -- the first sign of life to enter his world.
Scarlett Johansson (never ever hotter-looking) is Jordan Two-Delta, Lincoln's best friend who has just won the lottery, and is about to leave for The Island. This is right when Six-Echo sees a woman give birth and be poisoned immediately after, and then a big black dude (Michael Clarke Duncan overacts like you wouldn't believe in a very short timespan) with his chest cut open, being pulled across the floor back to the o.r. to his own death. They were lotto winners, too, and being secretly in love with Two-Delta as he is, Lincoln hatches an escape for them both.
All of this is great. Highly, highly entertaining stuff. The initial running escape scene is sprinkled with ouchy moments; watch out for that wrench, dude. Then, when our two escapees wind up in L.A. tracking down their "sponsors" hoping to spread word about what they have discovered to the rest of the known world. This stuff is even better. Bay outdoes himself with explosions and major motor vehicle damage: the dumbells flying out into the street, flipping cars; the Black Wasps flying around sky trains (some right into them), and through office buildings; Jordan and Lincoln winding up on a huge letter 'R' 70 stories above the city. Man... I couldn't get enough.
In fact, there's a little too much of it going on. I wanted more private moments between our leads. Not just because they're extremely attractive (Johansson gets yummier by the scene), but because there's some intriguing stuff going on with them. They know they're clones, now they do anyway, and what their purprose for being is: Jordan wonders why nobody gives a shit about her being killed for parts, but what about now that she's free and a life she could save probably isn't going to live? I wanted more moments of introspection like that. And for sure, more scenes like the one in the bar -- a fish-out-of-water moment that's just plain funny.
Mostly, Bay is too busy having people run and chase and drive and fly to slow down so they can talk. Don't get me wrong, there's a story, here. Just buried beneath a ton of bluster. But, that's more than I've been able to say about any other Michael Bay flick to date.
THE ISLAND borrows from other movies like GATTACA, THE MATRIX, and hell even TRUMAN SHOW, at will. It's not perfect; how Lincoln Six-Echo is able to have dreams about a particular boat is never explained, and Djimon Hounsou's about-face near the end may be script-necessary but isn't really believable. Even still, I enjoyed myself. A lot!
And here is the super spoiler review! Beware, but enjoy!
Famous Knights of the Roundtable -
(I am not a professional writer, this is the first time I have ever done this. fyi!)
Yo, Yo... Hello all. Forgive me, I am a first time writer to you all about a movie coming out, but I was able to see an advanced screening of "The Island" and I thought I would drop a line to you all. I wasn't sure who would be interested in this, so I just went ahead and sent it out to all ya'll. I will give the best recollection of the movie as I can remember, because even though they did the whole "this is still a work in progress, and it will be bigger, louder and longer..." it was still pretty friggin sweet.
I went into this movie knowing pretty much nothing. I didn't do any research as to the characters or too much of the plot line. Just the normal, "whats it about and who's in it" was fine for me.
Ewan McGregor plays Lincoln Six-Echo, the movie starts with him waking from a dream, a dream that you see in pretty much every trailer out there right now. He is on a boat with a woman (Scarlett Johansson as Jordan Two-Delta). Attempting to get to her, he gets pulled off the boat and drowns... waking up.
I don't want to put too many spoilers in this, so I am just going to skim over some parts, good and bad.
To explain the overview of the story, all of the "Clones" (yes they are clones, but are referred to as "Insurance" in the movie) live in an old abandoned missile silo refitted with a sweet holographic emitter that surrounds 3 large tower/buildings. These are used to breed and raise "Clones". They are raised to believe that the world was contaminated years ago and they are the only survivors left, and they must re-populate the world. Unfortunately the only place left "clean" is an island, and the only way on the island is winning your way on from "The Lottery". The main point of The Lottery is just a way to get the people they need away, to use them for their purpose... which in the case for Michael Clark Duncans character, his "Purchaser" is a football player needing a new liver. SO what do they do? Raise a new Michael, when he is ready, send him to "The Island" (which is just a different level of the towers) and removes his liver. Basically, you have your own little clone in case something happens to you and you need a new spleen or your heart implodes from seeing Bio-Dome by accident.
(McGregor) starts to ask questions. Wanting to know more about why they do things the way they do. Why can't everyone go to the island at the same time? Why can't men and women become more then friends?
(Side note: When the clones are born, they have the mental capacity of an infant. They are physically the age of their purchaser, but are only educated to the level of a 15 year-old. They are also never taught about sex.)
(McGregor) and (Johansson) start to like each other. They are best friends. (McGregor) finds out what really is going on right about the same time that they call (Johansson) to The Island.
(Side Note 2: If you want to know about the names.
The first name is the Purchasers last name...
Tom Lincoln...
The middle number is the reference number where the
purchaser lives...
Six, being in L. A.
The Last being the Generation of the Clone...
Alpha - Year one
Beta - Year two
Echo - year three
Delta - year four...
SO we get... all together now... Lincoln Six-Echo)
From this point til about mid way trough the movie is them running. Running from everyone and everything trying to either kill them or bring them back to be harvested. Some pretty cool parts....
- Steve Buscemi plays a Tech Lead Agent that is kinda like a High Tech Computer Repair Man. Character is pretty cool, the normal Buscemi part, but he does it well.
- There are some pretty sweet hover-cycles called "Black Hornets" (I believe) and they aren't in the movie too long, but its like a flash back to Star Wars and the whole Speeder chase scene when they are going through the streets of a futuristic L.A..
- ALOT of sweet action scenes. I really thought that this was going to be just a love story and a little action here and there, but it wasn't. I was impressed with the "wholeness" of everything. Love. Action. Story. Total.
- When you go and see this, there is alot of little things. For example, there is a clone that is always bugging McGregor and it turns out to be the President's clone. Pretty funny I thought.
- Its all pretty much straight forward. Alot of people get the shit beat out of them, and alot of people die (like McGregors Purchaser.. pretty cool scene). I was amazed at how much they showed during fight scenes. The chase scenes were also pretty amazing. Half the time when something blew up or ran into something/someone, you weren't expecting it. Very cool.
Its all baised in pretty much the 2010-2030. They talk about the law of 2005 banning raising clones for this purpose, so they lie and tell everyone they they keep them in a vegetative state until harvested. The ending is pretty straight forward, they all escape and go on boat rides and eat White Castles and all that crap.
The Character relations worked really well I thought, and the directing felt like The Rock mixed with Armageddon. Overall though I liked it. The acting was surprising well, you get to watch them learn as they go. Using nail guns and not evening knowing was a nail is.
I don't want to put too much more, because there is some things that your can't describe. At least not someone as low as I who has never done one of these before. I leave that for you big timers. I simply give you all the point of view from a guy that likes movies.
Overall, I give it a 8 of 10. Batman Begins is currently leading with a 9 of 10, tied with Dumb and Dumber. LoL. By putting that I am pretty sure I will get banned. If however you use this guys, the name is Albino Warlock. Thanks!
