This is topic The Island in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Greg Routenburg (Member # 1742) on 07-22-2005, 04:19 AM:
 
This film has all the makings of a great film and in my opinion is the best film of the summer so far. The characters have an incredible amount of depth and the story was brilliantly written even though some of the action scenes are a little over the top and unbelievable. It's hard to believe that you're watching a film that's exploring the vast depths and moral implications of cloning while literally being held to the edge of your seat by the action and suspense of the plot. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansen were perfectly cast for the leading roles portraying a sense of innocense that's befitting of a child and allowing their characters to realistically discover everything they encounter in the outside world for the first time. I was also very impressed with the directors use of color with specific emphesis being placed on the vividness of people's eyes, the doorways to the soul. This movie has everything to offer a perspective movie goer. You have some nice action mixed with fantastic drama, a splash of suspense and finally a hint of romance all wrapped around an idea that will leave you thinking for a little while after you leave the theatre. All in all, a very worth while 2 and a half hours. A must see movie this year.
 

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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-22-2005, 04:35 AM:
 
Can anyone say that this was a mixture of Logans Run and that Arnold movie Sixth Day I think it was called with a heaping helping of bang. Along with the anoying quick cuts, although not as bad as some of Bays earlier films, that only belong in rock videos. This movie was only entertaing for so long then it became down right predictable. I give it ** out of four stars.
 

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Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 07-22-2005, 09:36 AM:
 
I must admit I enjoyed the film, but what the hell was up with the trains running above ground yet none of the cars were newer than 2004. Does nobody drive new cars in 2019?!

BTW, did anyone else notice the unintentional innuendo with the lovely montage shot of the two dome buildings or am I just sick?

Overall *** of 5
 

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Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 07-22-2005, 09:41 AM:
 
What's the Greco factor? Scarlett is HOT!!!

She is also actually legal too!!
 

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Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 07-22-2005, 09:54 AM:
 

quote: Darryl Spicer

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Can anyone say that this was a mixture of Logans Run and that Arnold movie Sixth Day

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And Coma and Matrix and a little of Brazil too.

Nothing new with this one. ** out of 5.
 

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Posted by Darren Crimmins (Member # 1116) on 07-22-2005, 07:04 PM:
 
Doesn't the Greco factor get thrown out the window when everybody in the movie is legal?
 

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Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 07-23-2005, 01:57 AM:
 
For my review, see Greg's review. It was freaking AWESOME!!! Absolutely will see again. Scarlett of course is amazing!!

5/5 with this one.
 

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-23-2005, 02:18 AM:
 
I loved it!
Michael Bays direction is right on par with his other films, Rock, Armageddon, etc.
Every scene accentuates the story telling and he tells that story, damn the running time! His films are always long, but usually good.

Now, about the movie...The concept isn't totally new however it's a bit chilling because it's completely believable.
The possibillity of such a thing isn't that far off.
I loved it.
There was one scene at the end that I do question the quality of the CGI about, you'll se it and jump out of your seat.
Guaranteed.
4/5 - best of the summer action flicks.

By the way, Scarlet is good lookin' but her head is weird and round...
 

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 07-24-2005, 02:12 AM:
 
Nice bit o' destruction. I especially like the bit with the train wheels. They must been hauling them to the junk yard seeings as Amtrak was Mag Lev. Congress must have given Amtrak funding. Chrysler seems to still be doing well in 2019. Think the 300 needs a redesign after 15-years. Good to see they seem to have switched to Hydrogen or Electric propulsion.

Well sometimes copying themes from other films and books is a good thing. After all Scarlet Johansen is too young to remember Logan's Run.
 

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-24-2005, 02:02 PM:
 

quote: Ian Price

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I especially like the bit with the train wheels. They must been hauling them to the junk yard seeings as Amtrak was Mag Lev.

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quote: R Andrew Diercks

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BTW, did anyone else notice the unintentional innuendo with the lovely montage shot of the two dome buildings or am I just sick?

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I have the same problem with the old twin Cinedome 70 in Ogden, Utah, which I would love to re-open someday as an art house called "Cineboobs".

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CINEMA: Century 20 at Jordan Creek, West Des Moines, IA
AUDITORIUM: 1
PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital/THX
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Jeepers it's stuffy in here!
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

WARNING: Extreme spoilers. Stop complaining...It's a Michael Bay movie, so it's not like there's anything original anyway.

SIGN YOUR LOCAL MULTIPLEX DOESN'T HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR THE WEEK'S RELEASES: When they leave last week's releases (one of which is "Wedding Crashers") in the big auditoriums and toss "The Island" into Auditoriums 1 and 3.

Michael Bay is becoming the modern-day king of stylish cheesy remakes, and this one is no exception aside from not bothering to give credit this time. Basically, this is a take on 1979's "The Clonus Horror", a film featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000".

Bay's version is a three-act feature that borrows from Stepford Wives-like mind dramas, every action movie ever made, and Architecture Digest. A number of the interiors are modern concrete/steel construction popular in the late 70's. There's actually some pretty neat rooms in this film. That trick with the big window where you can press a button and it automatically clouds up...Somebody should market that, even if it didn't make a wavy effect.

Act 1 begins with humans regulated to a sterile environment where their diet and lifestyle are closely regulated in an overglorified Habitrail after some sort of armageddon or something. This is the dream world of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The last available breath of fresh air is an island which survivors get to go to if they win the lottery.

Act 2 begins with the escape and a fish-out-of-water storyline that is filled with some excellent action scenes in futuristic Los Angeles, which is basically Los Angeles of today except there's apparently only two car makers left on the planet and it's become extremely fashionable to have your ride tricked out at the Mad Max Aftermarket tuner shop. Act 2 gets so far away from Act 1 that there are a couple of times where they throw in a token reminder about that whole "Island" deal, and you legitimately go "Oh yeah! The Island." But the action scenes are really cool.

You won't notice all that much about the third act because you will be drained from the second act, which could have ended perfectly on its own. So you'll be preoccupied with wishing for the movie to end already. The ending makes little sense anyway...Why are the clones all running outside? They spent their (short) lives being taught this will kill them. Nobody has told them otherwise. They should have freaked out and headed as far inside as they could.

No, I didn't even think about the train wheels.
 

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 07-24-2005, 06:59 PM:
 
Hey, who also like the shrink's computer desk? I thought that was a fine bit of imagineering. It seemed like a good way to work, very intuitive.
 

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Posted by Christian Volpi (Member # 2370) on 07-24-2005, 11:26 PM:
 
I thought it was crap...oh, well. It's not like I paid to watch it.
 

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Posted by Jamie Glossop (Member # 2180) on 07-25-2005, 03:42 AM:
 
I just saw the trailer because it isnt out here yet , But it looked great, Looking forward to seeing it, Is it wide screen or cinema scope ?
 

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Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-25-2005, 04:57 AM:
 
Scope.
 

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Posted by Jamie Glossop (Member # 2180) on 07-25-2005, 03:14 PM:
 
Cool, Cant wait to see it
 

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Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 07-25-2005, 03:18 PM:
 
This was the weakest opening for a Michael Bay film with only $12.1 Million on 3122 screens.

• 2003 Bad Boys 2 $46.5 million on 3186 screens
  2001 Pearl Harbor $59.0 million on 3214 screens
  1998 Armageddon $36.0 million on 3127 screens
  1996 The Rock $25.0 million on 2392 screens
  1995 Bad Boys $15.5 million on 2132 screens

quote: Bill Gabel

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This was the weakest opening for a Michael Bay film with only $12.1 Million on 3122 screens.

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This is also the first Michael Bay film since 1995 that was not produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Coincidence?

-Aaron
 

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Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 07-30-2005, 11:49 AM:
 
A decent, appropriately unstable first half gives away to Bay-style action scenes and a black-hole of dialogue wrapped in friendly aquafina logos. This film was on track with "Back to the Future: Part 2" for me: a striking glimpse of the future that has little connection with the actual premise of the film. Although, this vision of the future does seem in keeping with current social trends... The cloning people will get their way (in some capacity, even via evil deeds) and corporations will infiltrate our lives to a greater extent.

Seriously though, if Steve Buscemi is going to be killed, he needs to be done in with increasing, Cohen brothers-style creativity. The pace has been set!
 

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-31-2005, 06:14 PM:
 
Today, 12:40PM, Cinemark 17, Springfield OR, House #14. Attendance about 50. Some kind of digital sound.

Special recognition to the Cinemarkers today. The presentation was excellent, almost flawless. Bright, sharp, steady image (40' screen); very full dynamic sound with (for once!) a solid bottom end to it (the hell with the poor saps in Houses 13 & 15!). There was nary a lab splice, scratch, speck of dirt, or sound dropout. They made the best of a very good print. A circa-1999 Cinemark Christie Package probably can't do much better than this. The only flaw is the image was shifted to the left a couple inches so the right edge was fuzzy.

As if that's not enough, there were also no talkers, gum snappers, seat kickers, cell phone yakkers, or candy wrapper rustlers. Woo hoo!

The movie is ridiculously fantastic. It's also fantastically ridiculous. I loved every minute of it, including that it kept going when I thought it was over. The sequence with the train wheels was great - Haven't seen that done before. Scarlett Johansson is HOT. Ewan McGregor was fine, but he still really needs to get that thing on his forehead looked at.

This was a great moviegoing experience all the way around. 4.5 out of 5 from me.

[ 07-31-2005, 07:16 PM: Message edited by: David Stambaugh ]
 

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Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 07-31-2005, 06:35 PM:
 
I thought this movie was great, also did anyone think the movie was better then the trailer?
 

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Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-01-2005, 11:29 AM:
 
Well, from 4th to 7th this week.
It opened with $12.1 million on 3122 screens.
This week it took $5.6 million on 3138 screens with an average of $1784 per screen.

Another film people are saying it copied is "Parts: The Clonus Horror" from 1979.
 

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-01-2005, 02:06 PM:
 
***SPOILER-AVERT YOUR EYES***
In the elevator in the beginning, Michael Clarke Duncan's character "Starkweather Two Delta" says he's only been there 6 months.
Meanwhile later on Steve Buscemi's character explains that Echo generation is 3 years old and Delta is 4.
I don't get it?
 

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Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 08-01-2005, 02:37 PM:
 
Also, Buscemi's character at one point, and in the same scene I believe, said that the "echo/delta" had to do with the age of the clone, and then when helping them find thier owners, said that they had to do with location of the owner.

So lots of inconsistencies, still fun though.

Ciao
 

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Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 08-08-2005, 12:31 AM:
 
All I wanted to know was.... Where exactly did she hide that gun near the end of the movie?!?
 

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Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-11-2005, 11:45 AM:
 
The producers of the 1979 film "Parts: The Clonus Horror" filed suit Monday againist Dreamworks and Warner Bros. alleging a number of similarities between "The Island" and "Parts: The Clonus Horror" and a number of prominent movie reviewers agree.

Imdb
 

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Posted by Jamie Glossop (Member # 2180) on 08-11-2005, 12:44 PM:
 
I went to see the preview of the island this morning, Great film,

The Clonus Horror Is old, But i dont think that the island is a kinda copy of the film, For them suing dreamworks etc is just plain right stupid, And this new king kong film coming out soon, How many films they gotta make of that

But the island was a great film, Im so glad i went to see it, Cant wait to see it come out on dvd ^_^
 

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Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 08-25-2005, 10:45 AM:
 
we have just opened it as a subrun , I had a look at it today , It was an ok movie , alot better than some we have we have had lately.

generally most people think it was OK so why did it do so bad in the US. It has done quite good in Australia and my audience tonight loved it.

OK it was a bit like Coma,Logans Run, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and just as unethical as the 70's movie Soylent Green , but we all enjoyed thoses movies , this has just keeps up with the times.
I agree it was well cast and kept its pace, as for the train wheels , well maybe some mining companies still use wheeled wagons.
Would the involvement of Jerry Bruckhiemer made a difference ?
 

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Posted by Max Einhorn (Member # 3364) on 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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Posted by Nishanth Reddy (Member # 3346) on 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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