Much to my surprise, I found myself intrigued by the first half or so of The Island. The fun wasn’t destined to continue though, as suddenly and without warning, a Michael Bay movie broke out.
Bay is one of movie critics’ favorite whipping boys. His movies are generally too long, filled with explosions and chase scenes and are edited as if the Avid was replaced with a food processor. On top of that his movies are generally completely devoid of theme or subtext. This tends to have the critics accuse him of being dumb and/or a hack. This is clearly not the case. Bay has a very clear visual style and regularly churns our very complex action scenes with a high degree of mayhem. In this, Bay would seem to have few challengers. Dumb he is not. He is a highly technical director who employs similarly technical cinematographers and effects people to produce highly polished professional looking movies. Sadly they have all the depth of a puddle.
The Island makes it clear that Bay is growing tired of this reputation and yearns to be known as a more thoughtful director. To that end he tackles the story of a Big Brother style society, riddled with complex moral quandaries about cloning and medical research. This is quite a step up for a guy whose last film was all about Will Smith and Martin Lawrence alternately firing guns and snappy one-liners. He opens The Island in a futuristic, enclosed society in which everyone wears the same thing, moods are regulated and diet is strictly enforced. The place is supposedly a quarantined area that survivors of a global contamination are delivered to. We meet Lincoln 6 Echo (Ewan McGregor), a fellow who is not terribly happy with this supposed utopia. He asks questions that make the folks in charge uneasy. He obsesses on dangerous questions like, “Who washes our clothes?” and “Why can’t I have bacon?” Lincoln gets referred to the fellow in charge, Merrick (Sean Bean), who we know immediately can’t be trusted, if for no reason other than he is played by Sean Bean.
The early going is an unsettling piece. It feels like being dropped into the middle of the story and missed something along the way. Pretty soon it’s apparent that our heroes missed something too. The uniformity of dress and the cheerful cattle mentality of these “survivors” leaves a feeling of deep unease over the whole place. Adding to it is the lottery, a daily event in which one lucky survivor is picked to be transferred to a beautiful island, reputed to be the last pathogen free area on Earth. The lottery promises that everyone will win eventually, which begs the obvious question, “Why isn’t the island going to be wildly overpopulated?” None of the survivors ask it. For the most part, they don’t question their existence much at all. Odd things pile up, like the way they are being taught mind numbingly simple material like “Dick and Jane” and aren’t allowed to touch.
Luckily, Lincoln has gotten chummy with one of the support crew, McCord (Steve Buscemi), a guy who knows entirely too much for his own good. I won’t go into much further detail because not long after this, the movie switches gears from creepy provocative sci-fi to straight action. As I said, Bay knows action well and delivers plenty of spectacular sequences. Unfortunately, the switch in tone is rather jarring and does not dovetail nicely into the earlier material. We are given a scenario that demands with think about it and ask questions, but instead of dealing with that, the story heads off on a tangent. It’s cinematic blue balls. Bay hooks the audience, pulls them in with interesting ideas and then leaves them hanging to go do something else. It’s almost as if the urge to start blowing things up became too powerful to resist and Bay caved in and quickly called in his explosives experts. The action half of the movie fares better than the thoughtful half as at least it was allowed to wrap itself up satisfactorily. The other end twists in the wind until almost the end when it gets a half-hearted conclusion that manages to duck almost all of the questions raised.
In our current political climate, how can a movie like this get into topics like cloning and what exactly constitutes a human and never try to come up with an answer? The vague notion might be that this movie didn’t believe those who argue life begins at conception, as conception is skipped entirely here. The idea of a soul is skirted too, suggesting it is a purely biological thing and that it doesn’t develop well if not given a good “To Do List.” Hell, even a quick thumbs up or down on a god would have put some meat on this bone.
I give Bay a lot of credit for trying to stretch himself here. But at the same time I’m frustrated by the gap between where he stretched to and where he could have gone. If he wants to ease into more thoughtful material, a good suggestion would be to avoid reaching for such highly charged material. Pick something mildly controversial and see where it takes you. Then the next time around go for something a bit more challenging. Baby steps. It might also be a good idea to check for plausibility in action stunts. At least two stunts in this movie shot well past my ability to suspend disbelief. While spectacular, I was completely lost to the moment as I groused internally on just how impossible that was.
Ewan McGregor does a very nice job here, playing his role as a curious child, rather than an agitated adult. Scarlett Johansson, formerly a rising indie-queen, cashes in with the big budget blockbuster role and in the process goes for the bombshell look. She looks absolutely great in this film, so much so that you might forget she's doing some acting. She follows McGregor's cues on a child-like take on the role but hers is less curious and more trusting. The two have a nice chemistry, taking on a fairly humorous aspect as they stumble across a lot of stuff involved in being a couple that they never learned in their sheltered life.
The special effects are most notable for being fairly seamless. There aren't any moments that leap off the screen, screaming CGI SHOT at us. That sounds like a back handed compliment but is actually high praise. CGI has become so effective that the biggest drawback to its use is being able to create images so patently impossible that the viewer's mind rejects it, not out of poor quality but simply being unbelievable. Bay uses his CGI effectively, never letting it stand out and distract from the action. The only other directors so comfortable with the technology at the moment as to render it nearly invisible are Lucas, Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Not a shabby group to be hanging out in.
The Island is easily my favorite of Bay's films but that's not to call it a success. It is far too disjointed in tone and style to be great but does manage to be plenty watchable. I have a feeling his next movie could be the one that finally wins me over.
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