{"id":18522,"date":"2005-07-22T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2005-07-22T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=18522"},"modified":"2014-05-10T18:04:37","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T01:04:37","slug":"review-the-island-dir-michael-bay-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/07\/review-the-island-dir-michael-bay-2005.html","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Island<\/i> (dir. Michael Bay, 2005)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>The Island<\/a><\/i> is a movie about clones, and so it comes as no surprise that the movie is, itself, something of a clone. But it is also something of a chimera; that is, it seems like the sort of movie you would get if you took pieces of two very different movies and squished them together, and the result is a monstrosity.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, we have a dystopian science-fiction movie about people who live in an artificial environment under a totalitarian regime, oblivious to the fact that they are actually clones who have been manufactured as spare parts, or \u201cinsurance policies,\u201d for the rich and famous of the world. The all-white production design and the theme of escape, as two clones try to break out of their world, brings George Lucas\u2019s THX 1138<\/i> to mind; but the emphasis on genetic engineering and sterile perfection recalls Andrew Niccol\u2019s Gattaca<\/a><\/i>, and the way the creators of this society use comfort and fear to discourage curiosity about the outside world \u2014 all of the inhabitants believe they are survivors of a global catastrophe \u2014 recalls Peter Weir\u2019s The Truman Show<\/a><\/i> (also written by Niccol).<\/p>\n

On the other hand, we have a standard-issue Michael Bay movie. Bay is the director of such crass, over-edited action movies as Armageddon<\/i>, The Rock<\/i> and Pearl Harbor<\/a><\/i>, and in The Island<\/i> \u2014 the first film he has made without producer Jerry Bruckheimer \u2014 he steals more than one idea from his last film, the stupendously immoral Bad Boys II<\/i>. In that movie, one chase scene featured Will Smith and Martin Lawrence dodging vehicles thrown off the back of a car carrier. This time, our heroes stow away on a similar truck and begin dumping heavy, massive train wheels off the back. Once again, the camera pivots around a door as heroes and villains approach it from opposite sides. And, once again, a scene gets its cheap punch line from some anonymous black person who barks something about Jesus.<\/p>\n

The science-fiction part of the movie seems to be trying to say something significant about our society and its mad rush into technologies that we are not yet prepared to deal with ethically, especially where the creation of human life is concerned. (Does all this cloning have any bearing on the debate over embryonic stem-cell research? Discuss.) But the action-movie part of the film couldn\u2019t care less about the deeper issues raised by the script. When two clones escape from the island and a corporate executive (Sean Bean) tells a team of ex-military mercenaries (led by Djimon Hounsou) to \u201ccontain\u201d the situation, it\u2019s just another excuse to pile on the car chases, the exploding airborne public-transit vehicles, and the extensive property damage. And if the film had any credibility before the scene in which two people survive a fall from near the top of a skyscraper, it stops right there.<\/p>\n

At the heart of all this are a handful of actors who have proved their worth in numerous other films, and who can therefore be forgiven for hopping aboard this roller-coaster. Ewan McGregor plays Lincoln Six-Echo, a clone with a slightly rebellious streak who is haunted by nightmares and a long list of unanswered questions; note how his first name alludes to the president who oversaw the emancipation of the slaves. Scarlett Johansson plays Jordan Two-Delta, the cute girl who slips him bacon strips when the food servers aren\u2019t looking \u2014 apparently he isn\u2019t supposed to eat them \u2014 and who would probably be his girlfriend if the security guards didn\u2019t enforce the \u201cproximity\u201d rules. (The enforcement of this rule seems pretty selective, though, since the clones\u2019 nightclub seems crowded enough.)<\/p>\n

Lincoln\u2019s curiosity about the outside world is fed by McCord (Steve Buscemi, stealing all his scenes as usual), a worker at the facility who slips him some contraband items and introduces him to concepts that have been kept out of his education, such as God. (\u201cWhen you want something real bad and you close your eyes and ask for it, God\u2019s the guy who ignores you,\u201d says McCord.) One day, while visiting McCord\u2019s office, Lincoln finds a moth that has infiltrated the facility through its ventilation system. The clones have been told that all moths were killed in a \u201ccontamination\u201d that ravaged the world, but this sign of life from the outside convinces Lincoln to snoop around. And what he sees ain\u2019t good.<\/p>\n

The clones have been told that there is just one remaining natural \u201cpathogen-free zone\u201d in the world, a place that is called \u201cthe island\u201d; and every now and then, a clone wins a \u201clottery\u201d that supposedly sends him or her to this paradise. What the clones don\u2019t know \u2014 and what Lincoln discovers, to his horror \u2014 is that \u201cthe island\u201d is just a myth, and that the clones who win the \u201clottery\u201d are actually taken to another part of the facility where they are, so to speak, \u201cprocessed\u201d like the mere \u201cproducts\u201d their creators believe them to be. Terrified, Lincoln and Jordan escape to the outside world, where they hope to expose what\u2019s going on with McCord\u2019s reluctant, minimal help.<\/p>\n

While some Christians might cheer the film\u2019s demonization of scientists and others who play God and treat human life as just another form of animal or machine, etc., etc., the story also has Gnostic overtones that could be interpreted as critical of religion. Just as The Truman Show<\/i> portrayed a God-like figure who tried to trap a soul within his artificial world by playing on his fears, so too The Island<\/i> shows how the clones are fed false myths about the evil world outside and the imaginary paradise waiting for them. And just as films like Pleasantville<\/a><\/i> have portrayed sexuality as a liberating force that allows people to break out of the perfect paradises created for them by God and men, The Island<\/i> presents sexuality as the true fulfillment of the clones\u2019 mythic desires, too. \u201cThe island is real,\u201d says one clone to her partner after they experience the best sex two virgins have ever had. \u201cIt\u2019s us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fairness, the film\u2019s mythic parallels become more complicated once the clones escape their world. One of the first creatures they encounter in the Arizona desert is a serpent \u2014 a rattlesnake, in fact \u2014 and the clones are simply too innocent to realize that it poses a danger to them. Similarly, sexual freedom has its limits; when Lincoln meets the man who had him cloned (also played by McGregor, who has a wonderful chemistry with himself), the original Lincoln says he has hepatitis, \u201ca parting gift from God for all my philandering.\u201d And the reason the clones exist in the first place, of course, is because the humans on the outside want to live forever, even if it means tampering with nature to do so.<\/p>\n

Whether these elements are signs of thematic complexity or just confusion on Bay\u2019s part is an interesting question. Certainly the film has other problems that make you want to scratch your head, like the brand-name sneakers worn by the clones (no environment is so pure or sterile that you can\u2019t put a product placement in there!), or the way some of the clones \u2014 who, if I heard this correctly, are built from their sponsors\u2019 DNA, with memories programmed separately \u2014 somehow inherit their sponsors\u2019 memories, too.<\/p>\n

And ultimately, whatever message the film might have had is ultimately drowned out by the violence \u2014 which, incidentally, is a little more difficult to follow here than in Bay\u2019s other films, partly because the futuristic machines he destroys are not as familiar to the audience as the national monuments that were featured in some of his other movies. The film itself remains a patchwork of clich\u00e9s \u2014 evil corporations, evil Frankenstein-like scientists, and so forth \u2014 which is the one kind of cloning that Hollywood does accept.<\/p>\n

2 stars (out of 4)<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Talk About It<\/b>
\nDiscussion starters<\/i><\/p>\n

1. Do you think this movie has anything to say about current debates concerning genetic and biological engineering? If so, what? Does it favour one side over another?<\/p>\n

2. Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), the scientist in charge of the island, says the clones have no souls. Do you agree or disagree? Does it make any difference that the clones were not conceived or born the natural way?<\/p>\n

3. Dr. Merrick compares the human body to a machine that \u201cwears out.\u201d How have the scientific developments of the past century or two encouraged us to look at ourselves this way? Are bodies just collections of \u201cparts\u201d? How do we understand our bodies in the light of God\u2019s creation, and in the light of the Incarnation and Resurrection? (See 1 Cor. 15:35-49.)<\/p>\n

4. How does the community in which the clones live resemble other communities in our world? What sorts of lies do we hear, if any, in the media (including movies)? In schools? In churches? How do these venues play on our fears and our desires?<\/p>\n

5. What do you make of the film\u2019s references to God? McCord says God doesn\u2019t hear us when we pray, while the original Lincoln says, presumably insincerely, that his disease is a punishment for his sexual promiscuity. (Note also McCord\u2019s line about being \u201cthe guy who tells the kids there\u2019s no Santa Claus.\u201d) Is there any sign in this film that God does more than ignore and punish us? What do you make of the film\u2019s use of snakes, light, crumbling angelic sculptures, and other visual motifs that have high symbolic value?<\/p>\n

The Family Corner<\/b>
\nFor parents to consider<\/i><\/p>\n

The Island<\/i> is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexuality and language. The violence includes scenes of hooks being shot into people\u2019s legs, a man\u2019s hand being nailed to a door, armored trucks performing somersaults in crowded roads, and various other scenes of things and people being shot and blown up. In addition, we see the clones grown and killed at various stages of biological development. The script also contains jokes that could be construed to be at the expense of women, gays, and Christians.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A version of this review was first published at Christianity Today Movies.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Island is a movie about clones, and so it comes as no surprise that the movie is, itself, something of a clone. But it is also something of a chimera; that is, it seems like the sort of movie you would get if you took pieces of two very different movies and squished them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[2233,814,2037,2232,1006,2047,1860,2234,1413],"class_list":["post-18522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianitytoday","tag-bad-boys-ii","tag-ewan-mcgregor","tag-gnosticism","tag-island-2005","tag-michael-bay","tag-pleasantville","tag-scarlett-johansson","tag-steve-buscemi","tag-truman-show"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: The Island (dir. 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