Monday, August 01, 2005
FANTASY ISLAND
Saw The Island with Sniffian on Friday night. We opted not to eat out in Evanston this time, having had a more than adequate dinner at home courtesy of Trader Joe's.
The Island stars Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johannson as members of a not-too-far-in-the-future community that's isolated in a large fortress-like structure. Think a kinder, gentler Death Star. This situation has been made necessary by a mysterious "contanimation" that has made Earth all but uninhabitable. However, there is one blight-free spot on the planet named, you guessed it, the Island, and lucky lottery winners are the recipients of an all-expenses-paid trip there. It's kind of a permanent vacation. Get it? You see, MacGregor and Johannson aren't normal people trapped by environmental contamination, but clones whose sole purpose is to provide organs and other spare parts for wealthy citizens of the good-old, regular, real world, which we find out still exists. The clones are the result of a sinister corporation helmed by the even more sinister Sean Bean.
I generally liked The Island. I know, I know, it's directed by Michael Bay, the mention of whose name is supposed to inspire immediate vomiting in any true cineaste. But the film was a pretty solid action-adventure yarn with a decent premise. It's true that Bay and the screenwriters don't have anything interesting to say about the issues of cloning and identity, but so what? They keep the action coming fast and furious. Besides, I think we've all had enough Anakin/Batman seriousness this summer anyway, right? Truth is, I haven't found Bay all that offensive when he sticks to his overly-caffeinated, nano-second shot editing style. It's the streak of cloying sentimentality in his films that's made me want to retch. Think of Sean Connery stealing that car just to see the daughter he never knew he had in The Rock, the infamous scene with Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and the Animal Crackers in Armageddon, or pretty much any scene in Pearl Harbor. It's for this stuff that Bay's DGA membership should be revoked. Thankfully, there were precious few attempts at tugging the heart strings in The Island and, for that self-restraint, I congratulate Mr. Bay.
P.S. I saw Armageddon in Astoria, Queens when it first came out. After the movie was over, the woman that I was seeing at the time had to use the bathroom. Upon exiting the rest, she infomed me that several teenage girls were in the bathroom bawling their eyes out over how Bruce Willis had sacrificed himself so that Ben Affleck could live and be with Liv Tyler. It just goes to show that this kind of crap actually works with some people. ¶ 12:58 PM
The Island stars Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johannson as members of a not-too-far-in-the-future community that's isolated in a large fortress-like structure. Think a kinder, gentler Death Star. This situation has been made necessary by a mysterious "contanimation" that has made Earth all but uninhabitable. However, there is one blight-free spot on the planet named, you guessed it, the Island, and lucky lottery winners are the recipients of an all-expenses-paid trip there. It's kind of a permanent vacation. Get it? You see, MacGregor and Johannson aren't normal people trapped by environmental contamination, but clones whose sole purpose is to provide organs and other spare parts for wealthy citizens of the good-old, regular, real world, which we find out still exists. The clones are the result of a sinister corporation helmed by the even more sinister Sean Bean.
I generally liked The Island. I know, I know, it's directed by Michael Bay, the mention of whose name is supposed to inspire immediate vomiting in any true cineaste. But the film was a pretty solid action-adventure yarn with a decent premise. It's true that Bay and the screenwriters don't have anything interesting to say about the issues of cloning and identity, but so what? They keep the action coming fast and furious. Besides, I think we've all had enough Anakin/Batman seriousness this summer anyway, right? Truth is, I haven't found Bay all that offensive when he sticks to his overly-caffeinated, nano-second shot editing style. It's the streak of cloying sentimentality in his films that's made me want to retch. Think of Sean Connery stealing that car just to see the daughter he never knew he had in The Rock, the infamous scene with Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and the Animal Crackers in Armageddon, or pretty much any scene in Pearl Harbor. It's for this stuff that Bay's DGA membership should be revoked. Thankfully, there were precious few attempts at tugging the heart strings in The Island and, for that self-restraint, I congratulate Mr. Bay.
P.S. I saw Armageddon in Astoria, Queens when it first came out. After the movie was over, the woman that I was seeing at the time had to use the bathroom. Upon exiting the rest, she infomed me that several teenage girls were in the bathroom bawling their eyes out over how Bruce Willis had sacrificed himself so that Ben Affleck could live and be with Liv Tyler. It just goes to show that this kind of crap actually works with some people. ¶ 12:58 PM
