The Island (2005) Review

The Island (2005)

The Island follows Lincoln Six Echo, a resident in a utopian containment facility, awaiting his departure to The Island. When he discovers it, and all he knows is a lie however, he escapes with another resident, Jordan Two Delta, to uncover who they are and what their purpose is. 

The Island is a film of two parts. On one hand, you have a derivative, science fiction that questions its very existence of life inside a containment bubble, where it’s people aren’t necessarily bred to be perfect but more raised to be pure, with healthy organs, a stringent diet and exercise regiment, and a basic coda that disapproves of human attachment, for there’s no such need. The people here lack the main ingredient for what makes us human, our desire to question and seek more. All except for Lincoln, a third generation clone with one minor flaw, he seeks such understanding and refuses the lies and mysteries fed to him in promises of “The Island”. 

On the other hand, The Island is an explosive action thriller that upends the quiet mysteries of the containment facility to give us the most Michael Bay thing since Bay’s last movie. Not bad, just different. It’s incredibly fast paced, only ever stopping to thicken the expository threads by adding in that Lincoln, Jordan, and everyone else were clones, insurances policies if you will, to ensure death in the real world is nothing more than an afterthought, kicking off their then inevitable fight for survival. Like I said, two very different parts, that may not always succeed as a whole, but certainly inventive nonetheless. 

We get a pretty underrated cast (for its time) here as well, starring Michael Clarke Duncan, Brian Stepanek, Ethan Phillips, Steve Buscemi, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Scarlett Johansson, and Ewan McGregor. While Johansson honestly could’ve been substituted by anyone with a pretty face, I still didn’t mind her, especially when paired with McGregor, who approaches Lincoln almost like an A.I. starting to think for itself for the first time; limited in knowledge but searching for more. 

The Island, directed by Michael Bay, is a startling outing for the explosive director, still lining it with enough firepower to blow up a small country, but with a deeper element to the story, geared towards liberation of the mind body and questioning what makes us innately human in the end. 

8.3/10