Scenes We Love: The Island
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
Us critics, we don't hate Michael Bay. Well, not all of us, and not all the time. I wasn't a fan of his Transformers, nor Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I haven't watched The Rock or Armageddon in their entirety in years, but I distinctly enjoyed 2005's The Island during its ill-fated theatrical run (gross: $35 million, cost: between three and four times that), and I still do as a decent sci-fi/action matinee outing.But how?, I've been asked. It does after all bear every other trademark of a Michael Bay outing: explosions, rampant product placement, blatant racial stereotypes, explosions, perpetual dusk lighting, explosions, and a female lead constantly flattered by her wardrobe (yeah, a real woe-is-us scenario).
Maybe it's because I found Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson to be more winning protagonists as clones on the run than I ever did Will Smith and Martin Lawrence or Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Maybe it's because the action -- as demonstrated below in the film's centerpiece, a foot chase/car chase/air chase -- is a competent, coherent blend of practical stunts and CGI, not the blur of metal on metal that Transformers is inherently bringing to the table or the desperate excess of Bad Boys II (wanton destruction and collateral damage is one thing; tossing corpses into traffic is something else). Maybe it's because the humor skews more to brief quips -- "Good job" and "Tough day" -- than anything involving humping or urination, and the depiction of African-Americans is limited to one individual immediately praisin' Jesus! rather than speaking jive and flaunting a gold tooth.
But hey, it wouldn't be a Michael Bay movie without latent racism now, would it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-25-2009 @ 11:24PM
Paul said...
You know, you really got to take things and movie for that matter for
what they are. Context is everything. People that are going to say
that this movie is horrible and Michael Bay makes crap movies, are
not taking movies for what they are. This is ment to be a purely
action blockbuster movie, not The Godfather, The Departed or Citizen
Kane, it's Transformers, you take it for what it is.
You know, people say Michael Bay makes bad movies, but, if they say
this......Why did Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen set a box
office record for a Wednesday opening with $60.6 million (yes it is
true, http://www.michael-bay.com , has the numbers.) If people say he makes
bad movies, why keep seeing them?
Ok, I am done ...Just making a point
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 11:24PM
Jay Seaver said...
I should probably make a macro for this, but:
"I don't expect movies like 'Transformers 2' to be 'Citizen Kane', but I would really appreciate it if they made the attempt to be 'Die Hard'."
6-25-2009 @ 11:24PM
vegimorph said...
I like the Island. Its actually one of Bay's better films I think. It was trying to be intelligent and it slowed down pretty well. I mean by the end I was caring about the characters. The ending's a bit too fast but it has some great music
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 11:25PM
NadineB said...
I agree. I really liked the movie. It did better overseas then it did here. So to say it made $35 million is incorrect. Ewan was great, Scarlett as the mother of a 5 year-old was not so credible. But overall quite engaging.
6-25-2009 @ 11:24PM
khia213 said...
Paul,
McDonald's makes what purports to be food and they sell a lot of it. That doesn't make it good. To badly quote P.T Barnum, " No one has every lost money under estimating the taste of the American public."
Reply
6-26-2009 @ 6:12PM
Paul said...
Hello Khia13,
Thank you, you wrote an intelligent answer. It was one I was actually wanting to hear.
A bit of what you said:
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
H.L. Mencken
The only thing with you analogy is that people think McDonald's tastes good, so they are willing to eat it, even though they know it's not the best for them.
What I was saying was...If people say they don't like Michael Bay movies, why do they keep seeing them?
I mean look, Transformers 2 set another box office record http://www.michael-bay.com
6-26-2009 @ 6:06PM
William Goss said...
Paul: we welcome discourse, but if you continue to plaster every response with that site link, they may no longer be welcome here.
Any number of sites can prove that TF2 is breaking records, and those statistics prove the film and others are popular, not that they're good...
6-26-2009 @ 6:22PM
khia213 said...
I'm a big believer in the theory that everything ain't for everybody. There are whole genres of movies that I will never go see. But I am disturbed when a film maker decides he can insult whole sections of the movie going public and think that's ok. Michael Bay has been racially insensitive for a while now and I deliberately choose not to patronize his movies.
6-26-2009 @ 6:38PM
Paul said...
William, No problem with me,is there some site you endorse that has these figures that I could post a link here? I'm a movie and box office fanatic, that's all. I saw the Island in theaters when it came out. I was literally the only person in the theater (with a few friends), and it was a big showing/ screen.
Khia, I can understand what you are say, everyone has the right to their opinion. I was at a theater the day Revenge of the Fallen came out, there was a teen (15-17 maybe) and he had just seen the Transformers 2 with a bunch friends and he was saying to them how it was the "All American Movie", that represents America, and he was completely serious.
6-26-2009 @ 6:39PM
William Goss said...
Well, as far as I can tell, Bay doesn't yet own BoxOfficeMojo.com... :)
6-26-2009 @ 6:50PM
Paul said...
I love the Box Office Mojo and there's Box Office Prophets, Box Office Guru, Box Office Spy...and others. Will those work for you? What sites does Michael Bay own exactly? Not the one I posted. Right?
6-26-2009 @ 6:53PM
William Goss said...
We would just prefer if you didn't link to your site with every single post. Once or twice, to something relevant, sure. More than that, it starts to seem like spam that we happen to know a person's posting instead of a bot.
6-26-2009 @ 7:02PM
Paul said...
Understood, once or twice. I am curious though, does Michael Bay own any sites? I know Box Office Mojo is owned by Amazon.
6-26-2009 @ 7:06PM
William Goss said...
I figured you must've already been fond of www.michaelbay.com.
6-26-2009 @ 7:15PM
Paul said...
oh, I posted to the site that had a dash in it, not the words together.
Anyway, thanks for the articles and news you post on AOL's Cinematical, I appreciate them.
6-25-2009 @ 11:24PM
Brian said...
Love this movie. Amazing how his "good" movie is the one nobody has seen. Good call on the music, vegimorph.
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 11:24PM
MarkH said...
The Island remains Bay's only movie that's worth a damn to me, and I know I'm in the minority on that one. Bad Boys was fun, once. So was The Rock. BB2 was wretched. Armageddon is on my short list of the worst movies I have ever seen. Transformers was excrement. Pearl Harbor actually made the descent into so bad it offended me.
But The Island actually had sympathetic characters, and Bay seemed to have restrained his usual OCD impulses, for the most part.
Clearled he's learned his lesson, and won't be making *that* mistake again.
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 11:25PM
Skeev said...
I like the Island too but then I like it when it was made forst time around as PARTS : THE CLONUS HORROR something I guess the producers were embarrassed that the world would find out upon release and not allowing for it... and squashed the film big time - It should have be a big hit as It has plenty of everything.
Also why its one of Bays only dvds to have zero extras apart from a dvd link to an audio comm track.
Admit you ripped off a previous film please dont act surprised when zero promotion doesn't make you your money back...
Island great film, great music too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clonus_Horror
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 11:25PM
Maria Stahl said...
That's funny, I just rewatched The Island a few days ago. I really like the first half of it. I get distracted by how many times people fall several stories and jump right up and keep running (and let's not even talk about fighting while hanging from fleshhooks jammed in back muscles), but as you say, I like the characters and the idea of it. Very much.
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 11:25PM
Joey said...
I agree with you, William. The Island was a solid Michael Bay film.
Reply