The Island (2005)

Release Date: 07/22/2005
Rating: PG13
Runtime: 2 hr 16 mins
Genre: Action, Science fiction
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi

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By Sam Morgan

The Island is the perfect example of action movies in the new millennium. Sure, it’s got everything an action movie needs: giant set pieces that exist solely to be destroyed, hot women that exist solely to be ogled, pseudo-intellectualism to trick you into thinking you’re not watching completely stupid, product placement-whoring that would make a window dancer in the red light district blush. And running. Lots and lots of running. And if that’s your thing, The Island is for you.

The movie itself holds up quite well in the six years since its release. Whether that’s a compliment to Michael Bay’s directorial style being ahead of its time or whether more people are now just copying him is up for debate. Or it could just be that everything is orange and blue like everything else. The product placements are still in full effect and really, that’s about the only thing that dates the movie but even now it’s not that bad. Perhaps the only things that stand out in the movie are its two stars: Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor. And the only reason they stand out is because you just forget that they were in the movie in the first place.

As for special features, the Blu-ray’s offerings are pretty scant. There are three documentaries that all talk about the making of the film and while they all claim to have different angels on the subject they all seem to run together. One shows the action pieces and how complicated they were to shoot. The other goes into the whole process of the movie. The third depicts all the pre-production work that went into the visual effects. Again, they're not really engrossing, informative, or interesting.

Surprisingly enough, the most interesting special feature is Bay’s commentary. Now, Bay’s directing style is well-known. Megan Fox says he directs like Hitler (in that he’s loud, forceful, and very demanding -- not he has anything against the Jewish faith when he yells “action!”) and that she was subsequently fired because of it. In the documentaries on the movie, you constantly see him shouting and basically telling everyone, “Make it go BOOM!” So, he’s a big man, personality wise. But on the commentary? You really have to turn the volume up to even hear the guy and even then, he’s really toned down. It's fairly informative, but for a guy who has nitro running through his veins, I just thought the commentary would be, you know, exciting.

So if you want an exciting action movie, The Island is a good call. But if you want anything else, and I do mean anything, then skip this Blu-ray.

The Island hits Blu-ray June 21.