The Island

The Island, the latest movie from Michael Bay, is a change from his past work, and coincidentally, his best film yet. The story focuses on a man and a woman from a utopian society where they live with hundreds of other people all sporting the same white suit and regulated lifestyle. The hope of everyone is that they will be selected in “the lottery” and be sent to “The Island” the supposed last remaining paradise on earth. Obviously wool is being pulled over the eyes of many, and when our two heroes; Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) discover this they are in a frantic, explosive, and often dazzling race for the truth and their lives. It sounds lame, sure, but it plays out nicely, despite some obvious mistakes by the key grips and others like them. The settings are all futuristic but not to a fault, and the action is mostly down to earth, and hardly so fantastic that you can’t stretch your mind to allow for it. Ewan McGregor is good as usual, and Scarlett Johansson is sensational, this also is usual but she still takes me by surprise, this time with her excellent action abilities, that is to say, her fighting and so forth. Bottom line is this, in the summer season that is usually lined with cheap action pics; this movie keeps you on your feet without lame dialogue, while usually sporting some pretty sweet scenery. I liked it immensely, which is more than I hoped for and definitely more than I plan on for some of the movies rolling in to theaters in the near future.

B+