Last night we watched our latest Netflix arrival, The Island. It probably was not a coincidence that it starred Ewan MacGregor, since we just watched The Long Way Round. I figure this movie probably popped up when I put Long Way Round on the queue and I grabbed it.
I wish I could put a note by each movie as I add it, saying why the hell I added it, because some of these movies come up, and PD and I glare at each other accusingly, wondering who wasted our Netflix credit on this movie! I also would like this note thing for PBS, so I could put why I put a book on my reminder or wish list.
I think PD liked The Island. I did not - waaay too much gratuitous violence, car chases/crashes and I was confused about 50% of the time about what was happening. OK, after a few minutes I did start surfing the net during the movie, which may be part of why I was confused. But it wasn't very good. It brought to mind the movie/book Coma, kudos to PD for remembering this title, which I read first then saw the movie some mumbly-odd years ago (surely more than 20). The Island is a non-existing place the inhabitants of this "world" are promised by lottery, when in fact - major spoiler alert - instead of being sent to the island when they win, they are being harvested for organs. The inhabitants are told the world was contaminated, and they are being kept in an underground world for their safety. In reality - yes, spoiler because the first 45 minutes or so of the movie you believe along with the inhabitants - the world is just fine, and rich people pay to have a clone made so they can have a liver or skin or whatever, that matches their own DNA exactly. The clones are not supposed to be mentally capable of making decisions, etc., although the Bad Guy does mention they are taught to the level of the average 15-yr-old, and also implies they do not have sexual urges or knowledge. Hello - by age 15, surely.... Anyway, they are pure as the driven snow and everyone always wears white too.
Well, Ewan is from a batch of clones who develop their originators' (aka Sponsor) memories - ooops. So they know stuff. And they can put ideas together. And it doesn't take long for Ewan to Want More and Ask Questions (it's as though he's the only one, although later they decide it was everyone in his batch).
Or something. So we escape out in the world by following a MOTH, a lot of cars are crashed horribly violently and people are smashed to bits left and right, and we find Ewan's Sponsor (who is, uh, Ewan with a Scots accent - the clone has an American accent) and then there's some more violence and stuff and there's a standoff while we decide which is the clone (the one more banged up, we know - but the clone is smart and starts talking with a Scots accent) and there's a defection of one of the guys who was chasing them to now aiding them, and then it ends but I was reading someone's blog when that happened so all I remember is, Sponsor Ewan is shot dead by Clone Ewan, and, hmmm not sure what happens to the heroine (clone heroine OR sponsor heroine). Or what about the President's clone?
I'd give it 2 stars, not sure about PD, maybe he'd give it 3 or even 4. He likes car chases and sci-fi better than I do.
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