You’d be forgiven for thinking that director Michael Bay is getting a bit obsessed with islands these days, be they prison islands (Alcatraz in The Rock), Hawaiian Islands (the US naval base on Oahu in Pearl Harbour) or islands in space (the deadly asteroid from Armageddon). However in Bay’s latest feature, the appropriately named The Island, the land mass in question is notable for being a totally fictional creation, a heavenly paradise destination to which everyone dreams of going but no one ever gets to see.
Trips to the island are won by lottery in a seemingly utopian community, a safe haven for humans since a catastrophic event contaminated the outside world. Inhabitants are strictly monitored, given simple tasks to do and their diet and contact tightly controlled. Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) however has questions. In talking to his friends McCord (Steve Buscemi) and Jones Three-Echo (Ethan Philips – otherwise known as everyone’s favourite chef/guide; Neelix),
he begins to suspect that things are not all that they seem. Upon investigating beyond the compound, he realises that the island may just be a myth, and that the occupants of the facility are themselves clones of other people. So he decides to go on the run, taking with him the beautiful Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson), in a bid to escape the facility, find their doubles and expose the lie.
As with previous Michael Bay features, it’s pretty clear from the start what kind of a movie you’re going to get. You’ll know that you probably won’t get much thought-provoking cinema, but at least you’re going to get a high octane ride for your money, and in that sense the movie doesn’t disappoint. It looks great, the locations and sets are good and the art direction provides a convincing, surgically clean, world. The cinematography also works well to provide bright, bold, almost edible, colour and there are a couple of particularly standout sequences, including the moment when the protagonists go through a holographic projection of the outside world, and a chase sequence involving a number of cars and a set of locomotive wheels.
However on the negative side, and despite all of these positives, the film still feels somewhat empty inside. Consistently, throughout the movie, we are not really shown anything that we haven’t already seen before, and in that sense the film feels like a stitching together of other, often better, Sci-Fi features, most notably; Logan’s Run, THX-1138, Minority Report and The Matrix. The act of watching therefore becomes a game of spot the rip-off, as speeder bikes chase each other; a la Return of The Jedi; or human pods burst open, as in The Matrix. As is also inevitable McGregor and Johansson constantly play second fiddle to all of these effects, and rarely have any real acting to do, beyond seeming somewhat
indestructible, as they run and escape one death inducing collision after another in the name of filmic tension.
However, all of this dramatic licence and cinematic plagiarism would be forgivable were it not for one thing; the films appalling portrayal of women. Given that this is 2005 and the film has a 12A certificate, it’s worrying to think that under-twelves could go and see this movie and think that it projects a true reflection of women in the real world, let alone 2019. Most of the women characters in the film have little or nothing to do, don’t ask questions and generally wait around for the men to go off and be heroic. Scarlett Johansson essentially provides eye candy; pouting and looking lost where appropriate and only actually getting to be proactive in the latter stages of the film (even then acting under the direction of McGregor’s character). Obviously action films, as a genre, are notable for being a predominately macho male preserve, but in this day and age, the kind characterisation shown here really is a bit of a joke.
In a summer that has seen a number of good, but perhaps critically flawed blockbusters, The Island really is no exception. If you’re looking for a simple, high-octane, action, rollercoaster that is gripping, involving and good looking (though somewhat overlong), then you really can’t go far wrong with this film, and in that sense it isn’t a bad film at all. However if you want a little bit more, a well rounded story, quality female characters or questions raised about ethics and politics, then you should be warned that this film all but ignores them. The Island is a good, pacy, popcorn movie, but that really is all it is, and it completely fails to break any new ground or show us anything that we haven’t already seen or heard before.
In the end its actually a lot like the fictional island destination itself; a very pretty fiction, which proves to be completely without substance.
The Island is on general release in cinemas right now.
Tom Carrington