Film Review: The Island

About the film

The Island is a thriller/ science fiction film that was released in 2005 and was directed by Michael Bay. The film has a run time of 136 minutes and is rated 12A.

Plot

Lincoln Six Echo lives in what seems to be a wonderful Utopian contained facility in the year 2019. Anyone living in this facility are entered into the ‘lottery’ with a chance to go and live on ‘The Island’, a place which is described as paradise as it is the last uncontaminated place on the planet. However, Lincoln Six Echo realises that everything is not as it seems and his whole life is a lie. He’s a clone. Along with another clone, Jordan Two Delta, Lincoln Six Echo escapes the facility, determined to find his human sponsor and live a normal life. However, their makers are also determined to bring them back and put right what has gone incredibly wrong.

What I thought

Somehow, before watching this not too long ago, I had managed to watch the end of this film a few years back. I only realised this though once it got to that part and I thought ‘Oh, I must have seen this already’. I’m glad I didn’t remember this though before sitting down to watch it!

Ewan McGregor stars as Lincoln Six Echo. I’m not really a fan of McGregor but I didn’t mind him too much in The Island. His character, Lincoln lives in a contained facility due to the contamination on the outside world. He goes about his life as normal until he realises that something is wrong. He witnesses something happen which definitely shouldn’t have and realises that his whole life is a lie. Although he doesn’t exactly know why, he knows he has to escape. McGregor is convincing as Lincoln, a slightly confused but brave guy living in a really strange world. I found his character to be quite likable and I did actually care what happened to him.

Lincoln also gets his friend Jordan Two Delta played by Scarlett Johansson to go on the run with him. As characters, they have gotten closer than they were supposed to be allowed to and he doesn’t want to leave her behind, especially as she has just won ‘the lottery’ to go to The Island. Johansson quite obviously the token love interest and beautiful woman to attract more men to watch this film. However, I didn’t hate her in this either and normally I don’t like her at all. Okay, her acting was a little wooden at times but for the most part, I thought she did really well. I liked how her character was always conflicted, wanting to do what she was supposed to while fighting the urge to break free and follow Lincoln.

This is not normally something I would comment on for films like this but the sets were fantastic. A lot of thought had gone in to the sets in the contained facility, with everything being thought of. As the film is set in 2019, some things appear to be a bit more futuristic but not so much that it becomes unbelievable. This goes for the outside world too. As Lincoln and Jordan head out to find their human sponsors, they have to go to L.A. Not having been there myself, I obviously couldn’t tell any difference apart from the fact that some technologies are more advanced. However, I do think that these types of sets made the film more realistic for me. It made me think that in only a few years, this is what life could be like.

I loved the idea of the plot from beginning to end. Although at the beginning of the film, you’re not quite sure about what exactly is going on, it doesn’t take long for things to be explained. I liked the fact that we get to know what is happening quite early on and from there, the whole film becomes a big adventure. However, there weren’t enough twists and turns for me. As things did happen quite early on, I felt like the surprises were all let out too early. The rest of the film was a bit predictable and I wasn’t really shocked by anything that happened. That being said, it was still exciting at the same time. The Island has some fantastic chase scenes and some more general action scenes which were definitely needed to make things more exciting.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Island, despite it starring two actors who I normally can’t stand. The plot is interesting, it’s exciting and more importantly, it’s really entertaining.