Movie Title: “THE ISLAND”
RATING: (OUT OF )
Review by Ranju Anthony
United States, 2005
Running Length: 138 Mins
Censor Board Certification: UA
Language: English
Genre: Action
(Wide Release)
Director: Michael Bay
Production Team: Michael Bay, Scarlett Johansson and Lauri MacDonald
Screenplay: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Caspian Tredwell
Cinematography: Mauro Fiore
Cast: Evan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi, Djimon Honusou
Music: Steve Jablonsky
To sum it all; it’s much better than ‘Armageddon’ or ‘Pearl Harbour’ the eternal trashes that Bay directed a few years ago.
The setting is futuristic (the year 2090) and the locales are nicely done albeit a bit more exotic than the ones in ‘The Minority Report’. Lincoln Six (Ewam McGregor) is a submissive worker in a place where the entire populace are supposed to live like caged vegetables with no psyche of their own. The only revivification one hopes for is through a lottery game in which the winner gets a trip to “the Island” – The only pathogen free mass of land remaining on the planet. But Lincoln soon senses that a lot lies beneath the smoother picture that is exposed to them. Teaming up with his best friend Jordan Delta (Scarlett Johansson) he ventures out to find the (shocking) secret behind the stupor outlines of the place. Aided by a nerdy technician McCord (Steve Buscemi), they are on the run from the single minded doctor Merrick (Sean Bean) and his hired ex-military mercenary, Laurent (Djimon Hounsou) who run the compound.
Brilliantly executed stunt sequences are the hallmark of any Michael Bay product but in this case the action sequences are worse than routine - they’re boring. They all follow much the same pattern: explosions, gunfire, someone rolling on the ground in slow motion, the camera circling the action two or three times, rapid-fire cuts so fast that you don’t know what the hell is happening, more explosions, more fast cuts, more slow motion, and so on - until you want to scream out ’’CAN U STOP THE DAMN PROJECTOR!!!’’ Since the projectionist will be asleep by this point, such a merciful blessing is unlikely to occur. Once in a while, Bay will vary things by throwing in a shaky handheld shot in between one slow motion shot and the next one. Or he will have a character utter an unbelievably inane line of dialogue. If I didn’t know better, I would be tempted to think that Bay was attempting to parody big-budget action movies, but The Island doesn’t give off the right vibes for a satire.
Virtually everything about this movie is disappointing. As one would expect from a post-apocalyptic tale, it vaguely echoes everything from Planet of the Apes to the Omega Man. There is no evidence that anyone involved with this project can act. Evan McGregor was never a great actor to begin with; the guy carries such a worn torn look that one feel dozy with the mere sight of his face. Scarlett Johansson understandably looks enthused and charged up in most sequences; regardless of the quality; one has to at least look interested in the project one has invested after all. But however hard she may try it will require a prodigious effort on her part to be able to ward off that B-grade tag. Steve Buscemi is a regular with Bay and is the only saving grace on the otherwise dull acting section.
Coming to the technical section, the special effects are far from special, relying on obvious matte paintings and unconvincing CGI to depict a futuristic planet where all the cities have been blasted. There are occasional flippers though where you actually admire some sequences but these minutiae are less and extremely disjointed. But I would like to extol the director for telling the story in a break neck speed; must admit that the relentless speed with which the movie unfolds didn’t allow me to sleep at least. And as I mentioned in my opening remarks that the film is actually better than ‘Armageddon’ you may actually like certain portions of a disaster which actually could have been prevented from being one had it been helmed by any other director. Fortunately Michael’s only watch-able flick ‘The Rock’ again would have been unwatchable but thanks to presence of eminent actors like Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage which saved the day for him. You could label him as the ‘Manmohan Desai’ of Hollywood; so you have been WARNED!