Scorching

The Island is the newest action movie from director Michael Bay, the guy who made Pearl Harbour and The Rock. This time he tackles a utopian community where one by one people are sent to "The Island" a place where free from contamination, which seems to have engulfed the world. Lincoln Six Echo however begins to question life in the colony and soon discovers that there is more to the Island than it seems.

Well generally films by Bay are high on action but does poorly in terms of the screenplay. Well for this one there was still a lot of action especially in the second half of the film. However the screenplay has improved for this one. The screenplay on this one is actually pretty smart even if the concept was unoriginal given the track record of Bay.

I thought the acting of the main characters was sufficient enough. Ewan McGregor did a good enough of a job. He did a good job in some of the lighter moments of the film. Scarlett Johansson who was great in Lost in Translation does not shine in this one as basically her role takes a back seat to McGregor's character. Sean Bean as usual performed well as the bad guy.

One thing I was rather disturbed about was the rather blatant "product placement" in the film. It was like they were shoving the brands down your throat instead of it placing it more subtly in the background.

Also some of the other actors who were given top billing I thought were under utilized in this movie. The story really revolves on Lincoln Six Echo with bits and pieces of the others.

Well the signs going into this movie were pretty good. Critics loved the movie plus we got Spielberg and Cruise teaming up so I was expecting a good one. I t was definitely in my top 10 list of movies to see over the summer.

Basically this movie does not go very far from the original version released some decades back. Same plot just updated in terms of time and technology.

I always grow tired of movies whose main selling point are the effects. I loved the minimalist special effects in this one. This however is still effective in getting the message of fear and dread across.

In terms of the acting, I thought that Dakota Fanning did a great job. It's actually quite hard to believe that she is only 11 years old but can do have a masterful performance. I can still remember the first time I saw her in a episode of CSI some years back and she has certainly progressed since then. I thought that Tom Cruise did a good enough of a job as the caring father trying to protect his children Nothing extraordinary but just enough. Nothing much to say about supporting other than that Tim Robbins should have been given longer screen time.

I also quite liked the way they were able to put across the theme on family relations and how it is tested in stressful situations.

I guess my main gripe and I fell that many will feel this too is that the end came rather abruptly and that how it was all resolved just felt unsatisfactory.