Delayed Reaction: The Island

The Pitch: Logan's Run except for organ harvesting.

How I Came Into It: The summer was 2005. I was fresh from graduating from high school and excited to see the last Star Wars movie ever*. And I wasn't going to see it once. I was going to see it many times. Many, many times. It was my way of showing respect to my fandom. An unintended consequence of seeing Revenge of the Sith the 12ish times that I did was that I'd be seeing the same trailers a lot. That meant a lot of Fantastic Four, a lot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and probably more The Island than anything else. As a result, this movie has hung over me like an old friend who I've never met. Coincidentally enough, this was also the second to last movie that I had left on my Michael Bay bingo (the other movie being that 13 Hours movie that came out this year that I can't prove isn't the same thing as Lone Survivor).

*Ok, even at the time I knew there'd be more Star Wars movies. I figured I'd have to wait for George Lucas to die or at least a couple decades for him to finally let someone else take the reins. Regardless, I knew it was going to be a while.

Why I Saw It: Give me Ewan McGreggor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi, Sean Bean, and Michael Clark Duncan and I'm happy. That's the kind of cast that I'll investigate with pleasure. For all the shit people give Michael Bay, he knows how to make things explode and his movies aren't boring...

Why I Wish I Hadn't: ...This was close though. The dystipian story is entirely borrowed and without enough new wrinkles to make it feel fresh. The action scenes feel more obligatory than needed for the story, which is interesting enough on its own. I'm used to Bay's happiness to include product placement by now, but it can still get pretty distracting. If not for two truly god-awful Transformers sequels (for the record, I love the first movie and liked the third), this would be my least favorite Michael Bay movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend