The Island (Or The Fugitive Clones)
Something rare happened after this movie. Mr Boo and I actually launched into a post-movie discourse to discuss and dissect the “morals” of the story - which in a nutshell is “Man playing God to no good end”. Mr Boo and I seldom have deep discussions like this (I mean, why talk when we have other better things to do? 
) - so I normally reserve my “deep and soulful” discussions with close girlfriends.
“The Island” is one of the few movies out there which actually successfully combined blockbuster action with thought-provoking questions (unlike say, Spielberg’s draggy “AI” which tried to be too intellectual and made everyone fell asleep). This is important especially to audience like Mr Boo, who has little patience in arty-farty bullshit, and loves action and war battles.
“The Island”’s success can also be credited to its two main leads - Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. They are no Brad and Angelina, but there is plenty of chemistry between the two leads (kissing and love making scenes, though short, are fairly explosive). Although Scarlett is not asked to do much acting, except run around and look pretty, she somehow manages t0 convey a certain amount of levity to the movie’s tone as opposed to being a cursory “to be rescued” bimbo. Ewan, that sly dog - I think I may be falling in love with that man. He is not the handsomest man around, but there is this innate playfulness and depth around him that you cannot help but be attracted. And he plays his character, Lincoln Six-Echo, very, very well indeed. A thinking woman’s man, if there is such a thing.
The story works for me because it is very realistic. Although the settings are futuristic, they are not over the top futuristic, until it seems cut off from our current world. Already there is on-going stem cells research, and scientists have successfully cloned animals. So the possibility of cloning humans as insurance policies to sponsors (i.e. us) to harvest their organs, or to carry babies, is not at all difficult to swallow. Even now, without the existence of clones, the rich are buying organs via syndicates who buy them from the poor (legally or forcefully). What is stopping these people from cloning themselves and having their clones killed after they serve their purpose?! Is the act of self preservation stronger than our moral code?
Interesting questions - all of which Mr Boo and I have gone through - without any conclusions.
Rating: 4 out of 5 boos
