The Island – movie review.

This is a true Sci-Fi Action film guaranteed to glue you to your seat. You won’t even feel like getting up in the interval to get your coke in case you come back a little late and miss a few seconds of the movie!

It opens with hordes of people in white uniforms living in some sort of ‘facility’ which is surgically clean. They are very well looked after but one wonders who they are and why they have to endure such a mechanical and boring life. They are not even allowed to mate or form close friendships. In fact they seem to have no feelings of curiosity, no sex drive or aggressive feelings. They simply obey instructions and look forward to just one thing – going to a beautiful island. They are told stories of the ‘contamination’ of the earth and the only place which is uncontaminated is this beautiful island. They all want to go there and and will get a chance to, if they live and win a ‘lottery’. This lottery draw happens regularly and someone or the other is taken from the group.

We know something is wrong with this right away. Lucky for us there is a hero Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) who feels the same way. He starts asking questions about the island. No one wants him to find out the truth…but Lincoln manages to escape and meet up with one of the workers who helps run the facility. And he finds out the truth…that it’s all a lie…the story of the contamination of the earth, the story about the island. The people in white have been brainwashed to believe these stories. Lincoln stumbles on to a greater mystery and impending disaster.

It is a terrifying thought to come to grips with but Lincoln is determined to save himself and his friends from this terrible fate.

There is an evil corporation behind this ‘mystery’ operation…a corporation which makes millions of dollars by doing what it does. If I write more about why the corporation does it and what the mystery actually is, the plot will be revealed and I don’t want to do that.

But suffice to say – the rest of the movie is full of action and increasing suspense as we wonder if Tom will finally succeed in his goal of saving his friends. When he sets out on his mission he takes a girl Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johannson) along and there is some element of romance as they discover what love is all about.

As Lincoln and Jordan run from the evil people there is a lot of smoke, fire and explosions … cars flying over each other, buildings toppling, flying machines crashing and ofcourse exciting high speed chases across a future world of 2050. The car chase in the last half of the movie is sheer nail-biting suspense.

Thankfully there is not that much of blood and gore. A lot is left to the imagination. The action has been handled with finesse and style by the director Michael Bay, who has also directed The Rock.

To sum up this is what one would call good popcorn entertainment with good acting and good action scenes. But don’t expect a thinking Sci-Fi movie like the Matrix or even Minority Report or you will be disappointed.