the Island

[sausage boy]

Went and saw the Island, with Scarlett Johanson and Ewan Kenobi in it. Ok, first off, its a sci-fi movie that quickly turns into a Hollywood blockbuster. It starts off interesting enough, (although even before it begins, you know what the plot hook is becasue the 30 second tv commercials already told you) and you feel engaged in this strange world. The interesting story and ideas are quickly ditched for futuristic vehicles and things hitting objects and exploding.

I really think that, had they worked a bit more on the story, it could have been a good movie. I was expecting something thought provoking or intelligent, but the message of the movie seems glued on and the intelligence is having trouble playing chess aginst a C64.

But the action is big, really big. The effects are impressive, and the half hour or so of the characters running around and destroying stuff holds up reasonably well.

I think this movie is somewhere at B.

[Lunkhead]

I just watched this and thought it was pretty bad. Half the time it was so bad it was funny, but the other half was just plain bad. It was a little hard to identify with Ewan McGregor's main character because he had to act like he was mentally only 10-15 yrs old. That made him kind of annoying to me sometimes. The action was OK most of the time but some of the sequences were laughably preposterous, like when they managed to survive falling 75 stories by holding on to a giant "R" and luckily landing in a net, or when they just happened to luckily get on a truck that was carrying massive train wheels that conveniently could be used to destroy their pursuers' vehicles, etc. Also it was fairly predictable. Anyway, it was basically what I expected it to be, a big bombastic Michael Bay action movie. I'm really surprised they got the actors that they did for it, though. Djimon Honsou seemed especially out of place. Steve Buscemi, though, was playing basically the same character he's been playing in big dumb Hollywood action movies for years...

C

[Hoblit]

or when they just happened to luckily get on a truck that was carrying massive train wheels that conveniently could be used to destroy their pursuers' vehicles, etc.

C

Ha... after I put a little thought into that part...I wondered why the driver of that truck just kept driving on. Did he not hear all the commotion behind him? Did he not feel the weight of his load change? Did this guy never once look into his rearview mirror?

Also ( <b> spoiler warning </b> )

Why didn't they just mow down everybody at the end...they had helicopters and armed guards...why didn't they just shoot them all. They had like 30 miles of desert ahead of them...

Overall, this movie was fun to watch. I can't say it was an excellent 'film'. But it was a good time with friends.

[Adam!]

This movie didn't have enough endings. I'm sure they could have tacked at least 6 or 7 more on if they really tried. Also, more product placement. Why do clones separated from society need Pumas? When did MSN win the search engine wars? Is the XBox 1080 really better than the PSP9? Could Ewan have given a longer list of stats about his car? C+ because, although it was a big dumb lumbering action film, it had it's heart in the right place. Would be up to some variety of B if the preview hadn't wrecked the big reveal.

[raisedbywolves]

I like the first half hour, and that's all that stops me from failing it. After the intriguing opening scenes, it becomes a typical Bay-fest of dumb explosions. I even like dumb explosions, but my problem with the Michael Bay school of dumb explosions is that everything is edited to death. That highway scene would probably have been awesome if we had been allowed to see it, since it appears they actually performed a lot of big stunts. But the editing completely detracts from the stuntwork by chopping everything into microsecond chunks. Not only does that editing style not make it more exciting, it actually makes the scene ho-hum. I thought this might be the first Michael Bay movie ever that I might enjoy. Alas, no. D

[mkilly]

I think Lunkhead had it right. It's entertaining but it's hardly a good movie. C