The Island

[longmanshort]

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S



Couldn't find any other thread about it, but finally just been to see The Island and was heartily impressed. Sure, it was a bit Hollywood occasionally and dragged a bit towards the end, but I thought the screenplay was genuinely intelligent for a high-concept sci-fi flick, getting away from the usual shlock to produce a film that showed the characters making genuine moral decisions for other peoples' benefit. Also good understated performances by McGregor and Johanson. The car chase on the freeway was brilliant and the fight scene in the car between the two Ewans was funny AND thrilling!

All in all, it wasn't ground breaking but did its thing and I'll be buying it on DVD for sure.

Oh, and like a true geek, I got as excited by the design of the train and those fantastic hoverbikes as I was by anything else!

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Does anyone know if this is based on the book Spares?

[Steamboy]

I've heard this is quite good, dont you hate it when they spoil a movie with the preview or movie poster. I mean the idea behind The Island is cool and it would of made a pretty cool twist if they didn't tell us all about it in the previews(I wont spoil it here in case you get different Previews to us)and we learnt it mid way through the movie. Will still see this on DVD though.

While on the subject of Michael Bay, He's been Mooted as the director for the Transformers Movie but with The Island flopping(in the US at least) he'll probably get taken off it, it would so be the movie to showcase his talents ie. The best car chase director around and face it a Transformers movie would be nothing but a big chase.  Oh curses to the Internet clique for destroying his latest movie.

CU Steamboy

[Bico]

There's a reason this seems initially more intelligent than the normal fare - it's a direct rip-off of that other film, the Clonus somethin-or-other (can't be arsed googling).  Apparantly, there's now a legal action by the original producers and director based on several hundred similarities, ranging from the actual storyline itself, to costume designs.  In the second half of the film, though, the Island apparantly goes off on its own tangent - coincidentally where critics seem to think it runs out of good ideas...

[longmanshort]

I dunno Bryan, I thought the film just got better after the half way point. Up until then, it was a pretty straight sci-fi film but after that I think it goes on a real adventure. The twist about the boat is particularly nice IMHO, and the near-future version of Los Angeles knocks the socks off Minority Report's shiny-shiny pseudo-perfection.

The one thing that DID annoy me was the awful product placement - even more blatant than in I, Robot!

[GordonR]

"I've heard this is quite good, dont you hate it when they spoil a movie with the preview or movie poster. I mean the idea behind The Island is cool and it would of made a pretty cool twist if they didn't tell us all about it in the previews"

It's not supposed to be some kind of M. Night Shyamalan type - "my god, they were clones all along!" - twist in the tale.  As you say, the pre-publicity makes the film's premise pretty clear, and the audience are ahead of the characters in knowing what's really going on.

It actually doesn't take the characters that long to find out what the audience already knows, and after that it's about what do you do when you find out you're not who you think you are, and what do you do to help your friends when you know what's going to happen to them.

With some cool chase scenes thrown in too.

[Bico]

Somehow, I managed to miss all the pre-publicity for this, and only became aware of it when someone in the cinema saw the poster and commented that they'd made a sequel to Island of Dr Moreau.  
Not a good first impression.

[longmanshort]

With some cool chase scenes thrown in too

That car chase with the big wheel axle things was incredible - my and my other half were jumping out of our seats during that. The cinematography as they hurtled towards the cars was real edge-of-your-seat stuff and knocked the socks off the last half a dozen chase films I've seen ...

The falling-off-a-building was a bit silly though ... even if I was terrified throughout ...

[Matt Timson]

"Does anyone know if this is based on the book Spares?"

Was wondering that myself.  Certainly the idea sounds the same- but then the idea for 'Spares' sounded like John Byrne's 'World of Krypton' when I first read it.

Hey ho- no more original ideas...

[paulvonscott]

I saw the trailer some time back, and it looked like a pretty entertaining movie, I'm up for seeing it at some point.

[Quirkafleeg]

No it's not based on Spares it's a koff koff 'original' story...

(like it's not been done a million times before - and has the director even made a half-decent film?)

[Oddboy]

Saw it at the weekend.

Yeah it's enjoyable - but perhaps too many hard harsh high-impact crunches.

And way too much MSN, Puma, Kalvin Klien, Nokia, etc. etc.....

[paulvonscott]

Who is the director?  As long as it's not Spielberg (War of the World, what a tedious film) and it's HALF decent, I'll go and see it.

Do they make really good SF films any more?  Still, we got zombies next month!

[Quirkafleeg]

The director is Michael 'blow shit up' Bay... who brought us such masterpieces of cinema as Pearl Harbor, Armageddon and Bad Boys

[ming]

10 points to Prof. Bear.

The Clonus Horror - now in a courtroom near you.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1546669,00.html" target="_blank">Clonus cloned!