DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Island (1 Viewer)

[Mark Lucas]

I think I would've liked The Island more if I wasn't constantly being reminded of other movies. The Truman Show, Logan's Run, Gattaca, The 6th Day. It plays like a greatest hits of sci-fi.

 

[Don Giro]

I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I knew someone else was being killed so I could live, especially if that person looked exactly like me. Of course, my opinion could change if I was actually in a life-or-death situation. If they just cloned the body part I needed, I'd have no problem, because it's not like the body part can live on its own.

 

[Sean Patrick]

i enjoyed the film a lot more than i expected (the only other Bay i can remotely stomach is ARMAGEDDON, and that's just as a guilty pleasure).

but this disc looked REALLY poor in my opinion. Edge enhancement, compression artifacts, and highly inconsistent image quality overall. Not at all film-like, not even close.

 

[EricW]

this movie was as bad as i thought it'd be. can't believe i'd rather watch Bad Boys 2 (that movie bit too).

there's MANY holes in the story.

it's a multi billion dollar operation that hinges on a super secret (clones are conscious) that even the janitor knows. McGregor's identity has 10+ cop cars zeroing in the clone as soon a it shows up on the grid outside the train station when the host is happy at home undisturbed. Bean's character is soooo happy when McGregor's clone is 'killed', but the fact that Johanssen's clone is still out and about doesn't seem to concern him.

 

[Will_B]

The image was intentionally tweaked to create different "looks". Watched it projected onto a ~40" screen and it looked good to me.

I took a chance that this film might be good based on this HTF review. I'd planned on just renting it but I got the WalMart two-disc edition instead. Glad I did! Thanks Matt Stone!

By the way the second disc from WalMart was rather brief - just an HBO making of which recapped the story and showed off the action sequences, and a very brief section on preproduction designs that was quite good.

There was nothing on the second disc about who wrote the story, or anything about the story development at all really. I imagine whoever wrote the story feels that Bay made a good film, albeit with some ridiculous action sequences which lessened the import a bit.

 

[Sean Patrick]

i doubt they added edge enhancement to the film for "different looks". i know they manipulated the look of this film but the dvd has additional problems i doubt will show up on an HD transfer.

when the Minority Report dvd came out there was the same debate, but when the HD transfer of that started being shown on cable it was obvious the dvd had additional noise/EE/etc that was NOT part of the original image manipulation process.

 

[Matt Stone]

There was definitely edge-enhancement throughout the film. I assume some of the video-ness of the transfer is a result of trying to make the futuristic scenes look clean and "plasticy." That being said, some of it was obviously (to me at least) unnecessary.

 

[Mark Lucas]

The HD master for this should be very very clean. I know, I saw it projected in it's native res and it was pristine and free of any of these video artifacts people are seeing.

 

[Joey B]

While it may be close to all those other movies, it's really the clone of "The Clonus Horror" which is a terrible movie but made for a great MST3K

There was even a pending lawsuit by the Writer/Director of Clonus after he saw "The Island" in theaters. IMDB News

Fun Stuff!

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Aw, man, you beat me to it! All those posts, and not one mention of the film THE ISLAND completely ripped off and is getting sued over...until yours.

 

[Joey B]

You can take some parts of my post and use them for your post if you'd like. I'll just make a clone of it...

 

[Harminder]

Being this a Dreamworks movie, I was surprised that DTS was not included on the DVD. Oh well, leaves room for an SE I guess.

 

[Ryan Tsang]

That's what I've been crossing my fingers for the day I saw the lame current release, not to mention the high price DW is asking for it. I had a $4 coupon and I didn't even buy it.

 

[Shane_M]

You'll be glad that you didn't pick it up anyway as DreamWorks Canada forgot to including the Dobly 5.1 track. There's only a English 2.0 on it.