Stuff by Steve

Besides mediocre monster movies and disaster flicks, I’m also a sucker for a good sci-fi conspiracy film. If it involves breaking out of some genetically engineered stereotype or throwing off the shackles of an oppressive controlling force in a radical defiance of “the system,” even better (I don’t know why that topic consumes me so). “The Island” was a nearly-great example of such a film. With yet another stellar performance by Ewan McGregor and as tight directing as you could get from Michael Bay, we were brought through the story of clones who did not know that they are clones and lived out their lives confined to a “contamination-free” complex while waiting to be shipped off to a mysterious island in order to repopulate the earth after the last great disaster. Or so they thought. I won’t give away too much, but of course some of the clones discovered their true nature and decided that they didn’t want to be lied to anymore. You fill in the blanks. The story was interesting and intriguing, providing an adequate blend of action and suspense. The issue of cloning, specifically, movie cloning where mature humans are created fully developed and aware in a short time period, was dealt with in a vaguely plausible manner (although I have a theory that to have the intellect and character of a 15-year-old, you must actually live 15 years, not three). The concept itself, as I said earlier, held the most appeal, but this also ended up being the films biggest flaw. Did the clones have souls? Where did the non-manufactured memories come from? The film introduced, but did not explore very deeply, the ideas of identity, predestination, morality, and humanity, to name a few. The setting was crying out for it, even begging, but the philosophy was given a surface treatment in favour of the car chases. Still, they were well done chase scenes, and the movie was just interesting enough that it held my attention the entire time. At the very least, it provided for an engaging post-theater experience.