The Island

By Simon Woodhouse

Summer blockbusters, popcorn movies meant to do nothing more than entertain, sometimes get a raw deal from critics just because they are what they are. But films full of beautiful people, big budget special effects and little in the way of a plot, aren't necessarily a bad thing. The Island falls smack-bang into this category. It also borrows heavily from well-loved predecessors (more about that later), another attribute that seems to annoy people, but isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

Beautiful person number one in The Island is Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor). He's an inhabitant of a futuristic community sealed off from the outside world. Which is just as well, because in this version of the near future, the Earth has been rendered virtually uninhabitable thanks to mankind's systematic abuses. Life within Lincoln's world is pretty boring. Everyday is governed by a routine that he can neither change or influence. He's told what he can eat, what he can wear and what job he can do. However, there are two bright spots in his life. He's friends with beautiful person number two, Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson), and he's also entered into a weekly lottery to win a place on The Island. Though the Earth is pretty much ruined, there is one little spec of paradise left outside Lincoln's sealed world, and this is The Island. But it's a fragile place, so not everyone can go there, hence the lottery.

Despite the promise of the lottery, and his friendship with Jordan, Lincoln's not happy. He's sure there's something more to life, but he doesn't know what. Inquisitive by nature, he's managed to sneak into the grimy maintenance area of the facility, and make friends with Mac (Steve Busscemi - a non beautiful person). Mac lives in a different sector to Lincoln, and seems to know a lot about life before the Earth became contaminated. Whilst talking to Mac one day, Lincoln finds a moth. Now to you and me this wouldn't be anything special, but Lincoln's never seen anything like it before. The world in which he lives is so sterile and clinical, there are no bugs, and no other forms of life except the people around him.

Though the sealed colony living on a contaminated Earth isn't anything new in sci-fi/action movies (Logan's Run first did it thirty years ago), The Island does give it a slight twist. But the twist itself is nothing new either. In fact, it's difficult to see anything original in this movie. It's borrowed bits and pieces from a whole host of other films, most notably The Matrix, Coma and the aforementioned Logan's Run. And the visual look is a copy of other recent movies such as Minority Report and I Robot. But unlike most of these others, it doesn't take itself too seriously and that helps it get by.

The thoughts that are troubling Lincoln become a whole lot worse when Jordan wins the lottery. She's going to The Island and he isn't. Though physical contact is forbidden in the facility, and the law is rigorously enforced by humorless heavies, Lincoln's going to miss her - a lot. It's also around about this time he discovers the facilities big secret, which in turn leads him to realize there's a world outside. So rather than lose Jordan, he takes her with him and they escape.

The film shifts into a different gear here, as we learn that Lincoln and Jordan both have the mental age of teenagers. This makes everything they find outside the facility fascinating as well as scary. Aided by Mac, who they just happen to bump into, they learn more about what's really happening in the place they used to call home. This information is delivered in a chunk of dialogue that seems lifted wholesale from a scene in Blade Runner. Meanwhile back at the facility, chief bad guy Merrick (Sean Bean) is a bit upset that two of his charges have escaped. He hires another bad guy, Laurent (Djimon Hounsou), to bring them back.

Using the information they learn from Mac, Lincoln and Jordan set off in search of someone who can help them. The action starts to become slightly cyclical now, with a series of set pieces that involve Laurent trying to trap our heroes, but failing each time as they manage to escape in more and more fantastic ways. This does however, provide the film with its most memorable sequence - the hover bike chase.

As always happens in summer blockbusters, the grand finale involves the good guy facing off against the bad guy. In the case of The Island, Lincoln returns to the facility where he inevitably ends up slugging it out with Merrick. This rather predictable ending is in keeping with the rest of the movie's unadventurous plot. But because the two leading players have a real on-screen chemistry, when they end up in each other's arms it does leave you with a nice warm glow.

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are what make this film. They're beautiful people, and therefore very easy on the eye. They're decent actors too, so what could have been a real turkey had lesser mortals been involved, is actually quite watch-able. Steve Busscemi (always good) and Sean Bean do their best to flesh out what are quite frankly two-dimensional characters. The plot, the dialogue and the whole look of the film, may borrow heavily from better sources, but that doesn't stop it from being decent enough in its own right. Which means it's not the best summer blockbuster you'll ever see, but it's certainly not the worst either.