The Island

The problem with The Island is that Michael Bay takes a potentially interesting premise, with scope for some interesting philosophical ramifications, and then blows things up. It's a Michael Bay film, so a certain amount of wanton violence is expected, but it still feels like a strange choice of subject matter for him, almost as though he took a potentially interesting premise and then went off looking for opportunities to blow things up. Whilst watching the film, I couldn't help but think what I have done to fix it, and pretty soon came to the conclusion that if you were to take a different director, a heavily modified script, and then go off and make a completely different film instead the results would likely be better. Still, Bay has a certain visual flair, so the film is pretty enough to look it, as are Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson, although visually it's relatively realistic vision of the future (i.e. one that looks very much like today), sits uneasily with some of the more fantastic elements on display. As blockbuster action movies go, it's all thoroughly ok - damning with faint praise, I know.