Michael Bay is well-known for his action-packed films with exciting chase scenes and immense explosions. Some critics approach his films looking for nuances and they hoped that his 2005 film, The Island, would give him an opportunity to break out of this predictable shell and explore some new themes. These critics were disappointed but fans of exciting movies have nothing to feel bad about after watching this intense blockbuster.
The film is set in a period not too far into the future. As the setting is revealed, it appears that the remnants of the human race live in a restricted underground environment due to some disaster that rendered much of the surface world contaminated. The leaders of this subterranean complex appear to dedicate themselves to rescuing refugees from the contamination above and preparing them for transferal to an island where people live safe from ecological catastrophe. The rescued survivors have no memory of their prior plight or lives.
We meet this new environment through the character known as Lincoln, played by Ewan McGregor. Like everyone else in this refuge, Lincoln is waiting to win the lottery which selects random people to leave for the island. Though the rules of this dystopian paradise forbid contact between males and females, who otherwise roam the futuristic set listening to propaganda over the public address system, Lincoln discovers an attraction for a woman named Jordan, played by Scarlett Johannson.
The opposite sex is not all that Lincoln is curious about. He begins to question the arrangement of the refugees’ lives in this underground haven. When he discovers the secret behind the island and that the entire set up of their lives is a lie, he and Jordan begin a classic Michael Bay adventure sequence. Fans of Bay’s films will enjoy how the remainder of the film turns into a non-stop chase as Lincoln and Jordan run from one problem to another.
During the course of their troubles, these two emerge from the underground asylum into the upper world. Viewers expecting such a revelation at the end of the film will be surprised that it happens in the middle. The last half of the film concerns Lincoln and Jordan’s further discoveries about who they are and what the real meaning of their lives underground was.
Other commenters have said that this was less a sci-fi film than it was an action film and they were right. Yet, the movie does have a twist that will remind film aficionados of other dystopian sci-fi films such as THX 1138 and Logan’s Run.
Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are not the only well-known actors to grace the screen of this Michael Bay film. Steve Buscemi offers comic-relief after the actors emerge into the above-ground world. The film is quickly taken back into its incarnation as a chase film when Djimon Honsou appears as Albert Laurent, a man sent to bring back the escapees dead or alive.
Without giving too much away about this film, it does much more than simply startle with explosions and entrance with Scarlett Johannson’s undeniable beauty. It also brings into focus a few current issues that continue to plague the modern world with moral pitfalls. Cloning, stem cell research and the whole field of bio-genetics come under the microscope as the characters become the subjects of these scientific endeavors, just as monkeys and rats have been historically.
The Island is a great film to watch with friends or on a date. It has plenty of action and enough romance to keep most any audience member interested and captivated. It is too late to see it in the theaters so, if you rent it or stream it, try to get it onto as big a screen as possible and enjoy it in the way all Michael Bay films should be enjoyed.
Beatriz says
I found this movie very interesting…Looking forward to buy this tape and watch together with my family…Thanks a lot for some information..