Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Island

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Topic: The Island

Max Einhorn
Film Handler

Posts: 13
From: Middletown, PA, USA
Registered: Sep 2005

posted 10-02-2005 09:46 AM

The idea of human cloning is a hot and controversial topic at the moment, and this film
capitalizes on that in a big way. The first half of the film while very technical and detailed
still manages to hold viewers’ interest and set up the story in an engrossing manner.
Unfortunately, the film does not make good on its early promise. Things start out well as
we meet Lincoln Six Echo ( Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett
Johansson), best friends in a Utopian Facility. In this strange new world, friendship is the
highest form of human relationships. Lincoln and Jordan are clones who think they are
human, among the last survivors of a world wide calamity. Their lives in the Utopian
facility are highly structured and routine. The one big break in this near perfect but
mundane world is The Lottery. On occasion, a lottery is held in the facility with the
“winners” being sent to what is assumed to be the last paradise on earth – a legendary
place known as The Island. As you may suspect by now, all is not what it appears to be
and Lincoln and Jordan will soon find that out for themselves.

As I stated previously, the first half of this film is well thought out and well structured.
Human cloning is a complicated process, and the exploration of it here is complicated as
well. The movie presents us with a frightening new idea -the idea of human cloning as a
common practice, and the perception of these clones as objects rather than people. The
second part of the film veers off into an entirely different direction reflecting Michael Bay’
s usual preferance for violence. The film erupts into action, action, and more action;
explosions and more explosions; violence and more violence. The film begins to look like
it was pieced together – careless and shoddy. At one point, Johansson and McGregor
fall off a building- McGregor is carved up, but Johansson has no scratches whatsoever!
I believe this movie had the potential to be a great sci-fi adventure film but half way
through – it lost its way. The actors are outstanding but unfortunately, the script does not
live up to their talents. It has recently been announced that Michael Bay plans a remake
of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece The Birds, I certainly hope that he will study the
techniques of that great director before undertaking such a venture. As for The Island
itself, I’m sure Hitchcock would have done a much better job!
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexuality and language.
Running Time 136 minutes

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Nishanth Reddy
Film Handler

Posts: 3
From: Chennai ,Tamilnadu ,India
Registered: Aug 2005

posted 10-10-2005 04:06 PM

The film had all trademarks of a Michael Bay film plus more.Having seen Bay's previous film Bad Boys 2,I never expected the movie to be so intense and dramatic but Michael Bay has shown that he is a versatile director who can make films like "The Island".

I think Spielberg did the right thing by sending the script over to Michael bay.

WB and Dreamworks did a bad job with marketing the film and I think that's why the film didn't do too well.The trailers told too much about the story,the film would have been more interesting if we didn't know some of the stuff that we knew from the trailers.The posters didn't look good,Michael bay said in an interview that in one of the posters Scarlett Johanson looked like a porn star :-)

Presentation

Projector :CHRISTIE CP2000 DLP PROJECTOR
Sound : PCM (6 or maybe 7 channel)
Theatre: Sathyam Cinemas,Chennai/Madras,India.

Picture: The picture quality was excellent.Michal Bay films have films have always had brilliant cinematography and visuals."The Island" was no exception.The color and sharpness was good.

Sound : The film had an aggressive sound mix.The surrounds were made good use of and the background score had a lot of heavy electronic stuff was used which sounded good.My favorite part was the scene where the huge train wheels were thrown on the road.The sound of the wheels falling on the road was awesome.The bass was deep and gave the sub woofers a good workout.The sound actually made us realise how heavy these things were and was a perfect example of sound can enhance the visuals.

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