Apr 16, 2007

[Movies] The Island

The Island poster


I've carried a bit of a flame for Ewan McGregor over the years - can you blame me? He manages to snag rather interesting roles here and there and he's quite the charmer. Of course throw him into a science fiction flick and I'm going to be all over it as if it were the next Gattaca! Unfortunately, this is where The Island disappoints as a film even with Ewan at the fore.

What got in the way of the movie getting anywhere good can be captured in two words - eye candy. The movie is packed full of eye candy, and I'm not just referring to Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson - I'm talking about the elaborate sets, the uniforms, the CGI, the wide panning shots - you name it, it's there.

All roads lead to one man - Michael Bay! Gadzooks, there are just too may sequences where he forces you to just watch them move either in slow motion or in pulse-racing chase sequences with very few words spoken. He likes doing these kinds of things.

This kinda makes me scared for the new Transformers movie which he's also steering along.

The movie somewhat dragged for me somewhere in the middle - which is ironically when they're running the most. It just didn't involve me all that much. And once you get to the end, it just sort of ends and that's it. It's like diet soda - you taste something like soda, but it's wrong and has a bit of an aftertaste. In the end its empty, lacking any substance in terms of calories - plus it might be carcinogenic, hahaha. Watching The Island may cause cancer?

I'm glad I didn't buy this on DVD - watching it on cable TV was more than enough for me.

2 comments:

  1. Expect only two things with Michael Bay: brainlessness and over-the-top chase scenes (exception: The Rock, but only from brainlessness).

    Gattaca is one of my favorite science fiction films. Hopefully they make more movies like it (it looks promising for us - see the recent "Children of Men" if you haven't yet.)

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  2. i can't believe they entrusted my beloved transformers to him...well, i'm just trying to cope by thinking it's just a "re-imagining" of sorts, so i shouldn't adhere too closely to "canon"

    I have the Children of Men DVD but have yet to have time to watch it...thanks for the input.

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