Monday, July 25, 2005
the island - a review
So I watched Ewan McGregor and Scarlet Johansson's The Island despite prior claims that I wouldn't catch such a silly show. Admittedly, the film was better than I had given it credit for - blame the trailer, I say.
Warning: this review includes spoilers.
I guess everyone's clear on the gist of the show: McGregor and Johansson are clones living in a facility, cordoned off from the real world. Along with the thousands of residents there, they are clones made-to-order by people dripping with moolah. A whooping 5mil each! So these clones live in the facility until their sponsors require their parts - skin, organs, that sort of thing. Well, evidently the clones are none the wiser about this gruesome fact of life. They have been programmed to believe that the world was inflicted with "contamination" that killed all life. They are special. They are the survivors. Talk about brain-washing. Geez.
Running to.. or Running from?
So anyway, the film really was about running.
I mean, hell, the duo really ran alot. They ran around the facility, ran out of the facility, ran through the desert, ran around the train station, ran onboard the train - *breathe* - they ran around the streets of LA, ran from baddies, ran from good guys.
The most common line in the film was - you guessed it - "RUN!"
Sponsored by...
What also struck me about the film was the tad-too-conspicious product placements. From one of the first scenes, we learn that residents of the facility deck themselves head-to-toe in Puma-sponsored apparel.
Other noticable brand presence - MSN Search, Ben & Jerry's, Nokia, American Express, Chrysler and Calvin Kelvin.
And I probably didn't catch everything, unobservant me.
I am God
The subject matter at hand - creating life; destroying life; one wacko scientist's God-complex - deserves more than a fleeting glance. I noticed however, that the film very conveniently glazed over the matter.
Johansson's sponsor was supposedly mutilated in a car wreck. She needed lung, kidney and heart transplants, and that's why Johansson was 'chosen' to go to The Island (a euphemism for Heaven, if you ask me). But McGregor (aka Sherlock Holmes) found out that reality bites and ran off (see above) with her.
Johansson knew that her sponsor was dying unless she received the necessary transplants. But Johansson the clone wanted to live. Knowing that this would be at the expense of her sponsor. The film left this moral dilemna dangling and only near the end, revealed that because of the delay, Johansson's sponsor was likely to suffer brain damage, with or without the parts. But of course, if Johansson had made the decision to save one life with hers, her sponsor wouldn't be in this state now would she?
So in this convenient manner, the film touches upon a controversial subject matter but refrains from delving too deep into it lest it opens up another can of worms.
To a certain extent then, the flick focuses more on extended mind-boggling (headache-inducing) action sequences and stylised closeups of Johansson and McGregory than it does the morally-debatable issue of human cloning.
Well like people say, that's Hollywood for you.
// posted by the commentator @ 12:09 am 
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