The Island (2005) (1 Viewer)

[JoshB]

Matrix Reloaded had one of the most boring car chases in recent memory. The CGI was poor and over used, and never felt the least bit gripping or exciting. By the time the film reached the car chase, I was already bored to tears by it, so nothing in it was memorable.

Bay wasn't trying to top Matrix Reloaded. Other action directors have to try and top him. Or maybe Bay is just trying to top himself in every other film.

BB2 on the other hand, while certainly over the top, was certainly entertaining to watch. The CGI was well used, and intergrated well with the live action scenes. I still love watching the superbit DVD and cranking it up during the chase, especially when they start "tossing cars"

Best car chase ever is still "Ronin". No CGI, flawless editing and superb stunts can top anything a big budget film can put out. Thats old school for you.

Actually, what would be everyone's top chase scene, and why?

 

[Shawn_KE]

I agree with Ronin having the best car chase, but I loved the Reloaded run. The music played during that scene was awesome as well.

The road scene in Island was pretty good, nice carnage. But you would think the driver would have stopped once the load came off, but given the look of the cab, it may have been a driverless semi.

 

[ZacharyTait]

Scarlett looked FIIIIIINE.

You got that right. Scarlett looked absolutely amazing. Those lips of her. Mmm...mmm...good. And the rest of her too is pretty good to look at .
IMHO this is Michael Bay's best movie since The Rock, although that really isn't saying much.
The chase sequences were fantastic. I was inadverntly ducking through the barbells.
I thought Michael Clarke Duncan would be in it more than he was, but he was effective nonetheless. Getting those hooks in you, OUCH!
Product placement has never really bothered me in the movies.
Where can I get one of those phones, computer/desk, Cadillacs and especially the flying motorcycles?

 

[Quentin]

Don't want to hijack this thread for car chases, so start one in polls.

Ronin is great...so was Bourne Identity.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

:star: :star: :star:
A good sci-fi/action film, very intelligent, with an interesting story. Decent performances by MacGregor and Johansson, and also a wonderful characterization from Steve Buscemi. Its only liability for me were a few too many climaxes, and a feeling this was running on too long near the end. Otherwise, it would have been even better.

 

[Sam Favate]

Saw this last night, and liked it. The first half is very good, but the second half becomes sort of generic Michael Bay. I disliked the grainy film and fast-jump cuts, but did like the set design and storyline. In the hands of someone other than Bay, it could have been a great film. Still, with McGregor, Johansson, Buscemi, and a good cast, it was a better than average film, and I liked the ties to sci-fi films of the 70s (one of which the filmmakers are being sued for copying).

One similarity that no one seems to have mentioned is The Prisoner. Keeping folks on an "island" under mysterious circumstances in a sci-fi setting definitely reminds me of Patrick McGoohan's series.

I recommend this one, despite some flaws.

 

[Scott McGillivray]

Pretty good film. I enjoyed it. Like others have said, it is a real compilation of other movies, including "The Running Man".

A couple of points:



1. Why was there a truck filled with "wheels" from a train when they had just recently established that trains (even ones to remote desert stations) run on a "hover" technology?

2. Anyone notice the near identical sounds the hover-bikes made to the pod-racers in Star Wars Ep 1? Was it intentional?

3. I thought that the 2 lead characters adapted a little too easily to the "real" world. I thought that they would have been extremely overwhelmed by the realization that another world existed. They took it pretty much in stride.



4. When the hell did Scarlett get so hot? I always found her to be okay, but kinda plain. Crap she was looking amazing!

 

[Al_S]

I thought this movie Rocked!! I really didn't see much on this film so I thought it would be pretty bad but I totally enjoyed it. Scarlett's lips looked quite tempting!

 

[Alex Spindler]

Scott,

I thought the train wheels were rusty looking and were being taken for salvage. They certainly didn't strike me as new, like the truck that was hauling them.

They adapted quickly, no doubt about it, but I took that as a decision to not make this a 'fish out of water' focused movie. They got in a few fun scenes out of the idea (the scene at the bar most of all) and and then moved on to something else. Of all the criticisms I've seen of the movie, very few have berated it for overstating anything. Most have complained that it breezes by many things, but I sort of appreciated this kind of alternate pacing of a near-future movie.

 

[Nathan V]

Perhaps I should have included a lik to this interview, in which Bay discusses the BB2 chase in detail-
http://www.worldstuntawards.com/text...rview.php?id=1
excerpts:
"...the scene was done entirely with old style stunts, because we didn't have the money for computer graphics."
"Did you have any special motivation for doing this stunt?
MB: Joel Silver ("Matrix" producer) kept saying that there was this $40 million-$50 million car chase. He said, "We have the most incredible car chase ever known to mankind!' I was in a complete depression. And I was saying, 'OK you guys, we are going to have to go old school on this. They have the effects; we are just going to have to make it as real as possible."

 

[Kevin Grey]

Thanks for the clarification Nathan but



is truly one of the most absurd things I've heard recently considering BB2's budget was $130 million. Bay sounds like he's trying to say "look what we were able to pull off on our tiny budget."

 

[Tino]

I thought Michael Bay's The Island was completely entertaining from beginning to end. Much better than you may have heard and undeserving of it's boxoffice fate.
Sure it borrows from a lot of films (Logan's run, Minority Report etc..) but is still loads of fun nonetheless.
Great action, great cinematography, grrrrrreat Scarlett!:b
It's a perfect summer popcorn flick and delivers what it promises. Two plus hours of fun, action packed mayhem. One of Bay's best (to those of you that care).

 

[Alex Spindler]

Totally agree Tino.

Kevin,

In trying to put that in perspective, and considering their parallel development, perhaps BB2 did not intend to have that rather spectacular freeway sequence when it was initially budgeted. When the gauntlet was thrown down by Silver, maybe Bay et all put on their thinking caps and expanded the script to include the sequence, which they did with practical effects because they hadn't budgeted a set construction/CG world creation like Reloaded had done. It sort of makes sense, as BB2 includes more action scenes than the next two movies combined (initial white supremacists raid, street race/street shootout, freeway chase, Jamaican hideout shootout, cadaver chase, Cuban hideout shootout, Hummvee chase, and Gitmo standoff from what I can remember).

They did have special effects (several of the sports car shots and fiery wreckage are CG), but not nearly as massive as Reloaded did. If it was an additive sequence, they really went all out and I think it was to good effect. I love, love real car stunts and crashes which BB2 and The Island deliver in spades.

All speculation of course, but might explain Bay's comment if it were true.

 

[clayton b]

I didn't mind it.
I really enjoyed the first act of the film. In the second act the action got ridiculously out of control and pulled me right out of the film. Like where Scarlett and Ewan fall from the top of the building on that giant logo (as seen in the trailers). The tone of the last two acts of the film didn't match the tone of the first act, and that sort of bothered me.
Bay's use of the epileptic seizure inducing editing betrays his skill with a camera. The lighting was great, I like the way he frames and composes his shots, but knock that fast cut music video crap out please.
Bay seems to know how to manipulate an audience as well as nearly anyone. If he ever learns that less is sometimes more then he could have the potential to be one of the greats. Judging by his body of work I doubt that will ever happen however.
Oh, and for the record, if you want to make a film decrying the evils of human cloning don't get Scarlett Johansson to play one of the clones. I'm sure that most red blooded males wouldn't mind seeing hundreds of thousands of Scarlett Johansson clones running amok. At least I wouldn't mind.

 

[Darcy Hunter]

"...the scene was done entirely with old style stunts, because we didn't have the money for computer graphics."

This will be last The Island hijack, I promise, but if you would like to see the CG effects work done on the BB2 highway chase scene, follow this link: http://www.imageworks.com/films/bb2/index.html and click on the "Go behind the scenes" link (under special features).

 

[Tino]

Can a moderator perhaps make this the **official** discussion thread so that spoilers aren't necessary?

 

[JoshB]

MB: Joel Silver ("Matrix" producer) kept saying that there was this $40 million-$50 million car chase. He said, "We have the most incredible car chase ever known to mankind!'

I also recall Joel Silver once saying that Keanu Reaves' kung fu skills and fighting styles at the time of Matrix Reloaded were above those of Bruce Lee at the height of his prime.

sad, sad, sad

 

[Kevin Grey]

It's Joel Silver- talking out his ass is his specialty. I find his enthusiasm very infectious but long ago learned to never take anything he says seriously.

 

[Ken Chan]

It's atypical Michael Bay. Meaning if you like his other stuff, this is really no different, and you'll probably be entertained.

There are gradients of Michael Bay. I remember getting an actual headache watching the shaky-cam car chase in The Rock. But after seeing the movie several times on laserdisc (some friends *really* liked it) it has grown on me. Pearl Harbor: crap. Armageddon: crap. Which is crappier? Probably Pearl Harbor, because it was trying to hard.

I enjoyed The Island. It is derivative and full of problems, and the product placement was annoying. But the action scenes had energy and punch. Didn't see BB2, so I can't compare. Scarlett was hot. (It seemed to me her skin was smoother when she was in the complex. Almost the weird way the kids' skin in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was really smooth in Imax. Then when she was sitting on the couch talking to Buscemi, her left cheek was fuzzy.)

The clones think it's 2019. But Sean Bean mentioned the Eugenics Law of what sounded like 2050. Maybe it was 2015. That one clone was in for seven years, but I guess they could have lied to him and said it was 2012 when in fact it was 2015 or thereabouts.

He did overdo the Bay Cheese with the final sequence with the people in the white uniforms walking along the cliffs, with the chorus or whatever, and the camera doing the circle thing. I did like many of the earlier shots; they were purty.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Saw this while on vacation. Very positive experience, perhaps Michael Bay's most fully-realized story to-date. I really enjoyed it from beginning to end. If I hadn't known the twist I think it would have been an even bigger shocker.