The Isle

The production was very low-budget clearly even from the start, the acting is wooden and it feels like watching a play at a theater. The story at first interested me a bit, but after 20 minutes, I realized this was not going to be a good movie. I gave it my all to stay awake and watch the whole thing, but it never really got better. It was boring and hard to watch because of the low-budget. I know this is not horror and I did not go in thinking it was horror, but I still found it very slow even for a period drama. It's just not compelling. And I usually like indie films, but this is just bad. I'm sure the people who made the movie wanted to do something good, but sorry, it really needed more work to even be remotely enjoyable to watch.

There's the makings of a good supernatural mystery in here somewhere but sadly it doesn't really come together. The lonely Island shrouded in most: check The unfriendly local man with something to hide: check The benevolent ingénue: check The ethnic minority character who wants to explore the island alone: check The spectre hovering in the background: check BUT it's sadly much less than the sum.of it's parts. There's no compelling story and no real scares.

My friend made me watch this because it was supposedly good according to RT, but we both regretted our choice very much. Visually, The Isle looks great. There is some nice scenery here and there. It isn't horror nor thriller, it stays slow and works on building the mood and remains slow throughout the whole feature. Way too slow for its own good. I'm all for building atmosphere, but there just isn't anything here. The story is subpar and the characters don't draw you in. There is clearly a lack of funds here, which doesn't bother me, but still, it shows and it hurts the overall production. The narrative is weak and the film as a whole feels flat and drab. The actors could definitely use an acting class or two. I give it a few points for the nice location, but that's it. We both did not like this movie at all and it made us sleepy, if anything.

This film was painfully stretched out to 96 mins that should have been a short film. I get that this was a low budget production, but even for a C-grade film, everything about it was amateurish. The directing and editing was terrible, the score was way too evident throughout, the acting decent in some parts, terrible in others - but I'm guessing that was the director failing to direct his cast. The concept story itself was interesting, but the screenplay dragged this films pace to a snails speed and felt like 2+ hours. It's clearly obvious all reviews above a 7 are all fake/paid - as they are the only review, or 2 or 3 others on the same day. It's an honest and generous 3/10 from me.

Having read the very controversial reviews on The Isle I pretty much had to give it a go for myself, and I have to say that the feeling you get while scrolling past of those 1-star and 10-star ratings is itself the best review for this film.

The Isle has a good story and it would have such big potential, but it falls short for clearly too small budget. Either it's that, or lazyness that makes about the half of the film looking like a student film.

So I did have several issues with this film:

• Acting is all over the place, and some of the actors don't have a clue how they should carry their character. Many awkward moments.

• Directing is sometimes okay, sometimes it isn't quite sure of itself and how to continue from certain points of the story.

• The film stretches the running time needlessly. There are quite a few moments where the story simply does not need to take a moment to reflect or react, but nevertheless it's there and this accumulates to at least 15-20 minutes of pure nothing. It would be different if this time would be used cleverly and building the tension, but The Isle just can't manage it.

But, as I said earlier and as it reads in the title, the story has potential. If this story would be picked up by a more talented director and gathered a bit more seasoned actors and actresses, it might come out a brilliant movie. Sadly, that's not how it is now.

5/10, "meh, would not want to watch it again".