[critical] The Island

In a few decades…

Lincoln Six-Echo and her friend, Jordan Two-Delta are among the hundreds of Products a huge colony underground, where life is closely monitored and governed by the codes very strict. The only hope of escaping this universe sterile is to be selected for a transfer on “the Island”. According to the leaders of the colony, the Island would be the last territory to have escaped the ecological disaster that ravaged our planet a few years ago and made the atmosphere ever unbreathable…

Lincoln, like all its congeners, has long believed in this paradise. But for some time, recurring nightmares disturb his nights, and the young man begins to question the meaning of his life and the restrictions to his freedom.

Driven by a curiosity tenacious, Lincoln soon discovers the awful truth…

Author’s Note

[rating:5/10]

• Release Date : August 17, 2005

• Directed by Michael Bay

• Film American

• With Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou

• Duration : 2h12min

• Original title : The Island

• Trailer :

Take a topical issue : cloning. Push it to the extreme, push up to the perfect realization of a man and his conscience. Here you have all the originality of the movie The Island. The rest will not learn anything to the fans of science-fiction. The theme of a society-in screen is not without remind us of 1984 of George Orwell, all modernized for the aesthetics, that is to say, white, clean and controlled.

The beginning is mainly devoted to set the mood desired for the huge colony underground whose members are Lincoln Six-Echo and Jordan Two-Delta. The atmosphere is sanitized, bounded, and continuously monitored.

Nothing new of course, but the beauty of the images we hangs well. The beginning seems so promising… and stay there. Past the rapid construction of the plot (which, in the end, is revealed too quickly and too easily), the result is just a series of explosions interspersed with pieces of stories.

Michael Bay, for a first film, did not skimp on the means : the action scenes were shot between the deserts of California, Nevada, and Detroit. For the scenes at sea, was used a WallyPower 118, a small yacht worth the modest sum of 25 million dollars. More reasonable, the Cadillac (the car of Tom Lincoln) cost only $ 7 million. A budget of consequence, therefore, that the actors should take : Michael Bay demanded a physical commitment important.

Result : they run, jump, shout, fall, fall, re-run… The action scenes strung together for our greatest joy, which is more aberrant than the others. It is always a thrill of the incredible opportunity which benefits our two clones, that nothing, not even a helicopter will not stop. A fall from the top of a building ? No problem… Put a net.

That we do not worry : a happy ending for everyone, even the most evil of villains using the gentiles clones. A reflection on human cloning ? It’s expensive.

Grant to film scenes of double (Tom Lincoln alias Ewan McGregor face-to-Lincoln Six-Echo alias Ewan McGregor also) remarkably successful.

In the end, a great movie-night tv.

Buy the movie on DVD