The Island

Finally! A movie with an idea, a plot, plausible and interesting characters, and, so help me, an actual bonafide non-nuanced moral theme. Since the TV ads apparently don't even remotely hint at what that moral theme is, I'll tell you: the sanctity of human life. This ought to resonate with religious types out there. But marketing execs must have figured morals aren't very chic these days (unless it's "save the planet!"), and having learned absolutely nothing from the recent huge success of The Passion of the Christ, they decided to market the film as yet another generic futuristic action CGI-fest. Big mistake. The film isn't doing well at the box office, but could have been saved if the ad campaign had been aimed at the same folks who made The Passion such a phenomenal money-maker.

*sigh*

I won't divulge anything about the plot here, but a few comments...

- The movie suffers a little bit from multiple-personality syndrome. The first third is thought-oriented, and sets up the plot. The second third is all-out action, though very good action. The third third (heh) is a hybrid of the first two, but ties things together nicely.

- F/X are superb, but don't overwhelm the story. Think Minority Report in terms of style and effectiveness.

- Nice little surprise near the end.

- Is it just me or is Sean Bean playing the egotistical jerkface a lot lately?

It's late, and I'm tired, so that's all you get for this review. Go see the movie.

Update! Libertas notes that conservatives are starting to catch on to The Island's pro-life message. A bit too late to save Dreamworks, but maybe other studios will figure out that there's money to be made in conservative-themed films.