Jump to content

Night at the movies - The Island


Supreme Cmdr
 Share

Recommended Posts

Aw man, I didn't get to see anything this morning. Plan was to catch an early showing of Devils Rejects and follow it up with The Island before school. Lo and behold I missed ONE store on my route and had to cover that this morning (all my store calls are due today)... SO there's no 1 o clock showings for anything right now. Since I have school at 5 I won't have time to see anything!

Guess tomorrow will have to be my moviepalooza instead. SO... anyone hardcore enough to have seen this already?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw it this afternoon and liked it too. It had the typical Michael Bay wanton distruction and absolute badasses, but the story and acting was pretty good.

I remember seeing this back when it was called Logan's Run. Anyone see that? Looks like some adaptation of it.

Now I know why George doesn't want cloning to happen.

8/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why wasn't my ticket free? I had to sit through enough commercials - my ticket really should have been paid for. Not since Little Nickey have a seen movie so blatantly full of wonton and gratuitous product placement. No - this transends product placement. Remember in The Truman Show when Jim Carrey's wife stops midconversation to talk about coffee? It's like that - characters actually stop to talk about the product. Vehicles are parked - just so - filling the screen with their shiny luxuriousness. Here are just a few of the brands my friend and I caught (many are used over and over and over):

Puma

Aquafina

Xbox

MSN Search

Michelob Light

Cadillac

Chrysler

Honda

Nokia

Amtrak

Amex

Mastercard

Chevrolet

I'm sure there's more but I spent so much time laughing I might have missed a few. Seriously, entire scenes are dedicated to beverages, vehicles, and communication devices.

Sans the nonstop advertisement, this might have been a pretty good film... except for the giant central plot hole. If what the company is doing is illegal, and they have hundreds (if not thousands) of employees - why hasn't someone blown the whistle already? I mean, they had a good concept, it was almost executed well, why blow it with a stupid technicality that dosn't really change the story much... aside from undermining the entire morality subplot. If the movie had ended right with Logan and Jessica... I mean THX and SEN... I mean Lincoln and Jordon emerging from the facility... THAT would have been a great short film (sans shameless Xbox and Aquafina commercials).

I will hand it this - it was vaguely entertaining for a while. That does not, however, excuse the movie for being a 2-hour long big budget commercial piece of trash. At least Demolition Man and Little Nicky didn't try to dupe their audiences with this crap. Adding insult to injury the movie ran about 60 minutes longer than it needed to (really, I wonder why that is). God I'm mad right now.

4/10 - Because I'm feeling generous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree, it ran a bit longer than it needed to be. Even the first hour of setting up the movie, was boring in some parts.

As for the plot hole, I figure that the employees were probably under the impression that they were working on a govt. project; since the facility was primarily funded by the defense dept.

Man I love that jet bike!!

ps: Scriv, if you'd spent as much time watching the movie instead of staring at the product placements, your time would probably have been better spent I think. Product placement is the norm for any/all modern futuristic films and I can't remember any critic worth his salt, making a big deal about them.

[ 07-24-2005, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because product placement has never been as invasive as it was in The Island. Every few minutes the movie would stop to sell a car - it was absolutely ridiculous... and the commercials just kept coming - non-stop, constantly, from beginning to end.

I kept sensing that certain scenes were in there (that should have been cut or tightened up) only because they were contractually obligated to sell whatever product was on screen. When I'm watching a futuristic movie I don't want to be bombarded with advertisements for modern products. I paid for my ticket, they pull me clean out of the story, and their not even cunningly integrated. For instance, the Michelob Light commercial - the camera is focused on the bottle for 15 seconds while the characters talk in the background. Then, one of the characters pick it up and drink it dead-on-profile shot. The only thing missing was corny beer commercial music.

I make a big deal because this movie sets a very bad precedent for others to follow. It's so far beyond anything else that has been done that it's positively maddening. I'm still paying for my ticket, so unless these invasions into my entertainment somehow passes significant savings along to me, I don't want any part of it. I put this right up there with telemarketers trying to sell you auto insurance while you're eating dinner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw this last night and I went in with low expectations for it. I was pleasantly supprised, yes there was that big plot hole about the employees, yes there was one very random cut, and yes there was the feeling that "wow they put in alot of branding" but there was only one or two times that the branding really felt lout of place beyond that it helped add grit.

The movie did bring up some interesting questions but overall it was a little bit meh.. 7/10 for the questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL!! Besides, its easier to use brand names that people can recognize, than coming up with crap that they think is what the brands are going to be in the future.

I must say, I loved that Nokia video phone!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoyed it. Not an oscar winning film, but pretty decent. The advertising was a bit annoying but it didn't pull me out of the film, so to speak. The only problem I had was that after they escaped, all the "thought-provoking" material came to a hault and then it was just explosions, explosions, explosions. There didn't need to be so many action scenes and the movie didn't need to be that long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well hey, don't get me wrong here. I love explosions just as much as the next guy, but I thought the plot had quite a bit of potential, and that maybe it wouldn't have to degenerate into standard action fair. Guess that's what I get for getting my hopes up, hmm?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Hellbinder[CE]

No way scriv..

the absolute worst case of this is in Waynes World. That scene in the middle where they mock selling products (doritos, pepsi, shoes and some other stuff if i remember right) is one of the funniest things i have ever seen. I still remember laughing so hard my eyes wattered and i slid halfway out of my chair. Right in the theater.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...