 Director Michael Bay has always taken some satisfaction in the fact that while his action flicks are often derided by critics, they perform like gangbusters at the box office. His latest movie, The Island, may be no exception. The film, which stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, is being subjected to a virtual tsunami of negative reviews (but it also receives a few favorable ones, too). Claudia Puig in USA Today describes it as "this loud, sometimes frenetic cinematic assault." Similarly, John Anderson in Newsday calls it "this loud, slick, pointless movie." Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal writes that it "comes on like an overproduced coma, and leaves you comatose by the end." And Ann Hornaday offers this advice in the Washington Post: "If you find yourself at The Island I have only three words of advice: Vote yourself off." Nevertheless, Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times bestows three stars on the film, even while writing that watching it was like watching a double feature. "The first half ... is a spare, creepy science fiction parable, and then it shifts into a high-tech action picture. Both halves work. Whether they work together is a good question. The more you like one, the less you may like the other. I liked them both, up to a point, but the movie seemed a little too much like surf & turf." And Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News seems to suggest it's simply a movie to eat popcorn by. He writes: "This is a summer movie that knows what it is -- and that that is all it is -- and acts accordingly. It's got a hot premise, some cool sets, attractive stars and action that lets up only when it thinks you're about to surrender." |
