The Island

The Island is a magnificent science fiction film in the vein of paranoid visions of the not so distant future like Soylent Green and Logan’s Run. From director Michael Bay, The Island is more The Rock than Pearl Harbor. It is a well paced and tightly edited entertaining thrill ride unlike many of Bay’s bloated creations. More importantly it has multidimensional characters with motivations and desires that go beyond those that service the immediate needs of the plot. The Island is not campy, it follows its characters with interest and though there is a lot of action it is the characters that shine through and make this film worthwhile. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanson are not dipping into material that is beneath them in entering a science fiction film, though I must admit that their presence may give a marginal film genre more mass appeal. The story is riveting and the characters are thoughtful, their motivations being as suspect as their very existence.



Of course this is a science fiction film so the premise is all important. Lincoln Six Echo wakes up every day in a clean white underground world where his food intake is monitored and his exercise regimen scrutinized. It is the mid 21’st century and there had been a catastrophic nuclear war that makes much of the world uninhabitable but Lincoln and his friends live in a utopian world where everyone spends their time exercising and hanging out and generally waiting around. The one sustaining dream they all share is to win the lottery and go to The Island, a near mythical place that is free from contamination where people can live freely and help repopulate the world. This is a nice dream, and it may drive some, but it is not enough for Lincoln Six Echo who regularly wakes from extraordinary dreams of exotic boats. He longs for something more to his life than filling tubes and hanging around drinking health drinks. Plus he is a little upset with the proximity meter since it won’t let him get close to Jordan Two Delta, Johansson, his best friend.




So Lincoln decides to explore explore the boundaries of his safe world and ends up going up a shaft in a contaminated area and comes out in a hospital.

Related posts:

1. Shutter Island