The Island

Year: 2005 Rating: PG-13 Overall Evaluation: 9.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 10.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 8.0 / 10 10.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some (very tame) sexuality and language. All in all this was a very clean film.

Story

The story begins with a bunch of people living out rather dull lives in a strictly controlled "utopia" (which is much more like a repressive YMCA than the garden of eden) set up to keep survivors of a worldwide contamination safe to repopulate the planet. The hero has become disatisfied with his environment and nagging questions keep him searching for answers he does not seem allowed to find. The one thing that keeps the inhabitants going is the hope of winning a lottery that grants them permission to leave the enviornment and go to the last remaining non-contaminated place on earth . . . the island.

[SPOILER WARNING!]

The hero discovers that there is no island. The people who "win the lottery" are being killed offsite. He and the heroine escape and discover that they are clones being kept as "insurance policies" for their sponsors should said sponsors ever need any spare parts. They confront the heroe's sponsor and eventually succeed in returning to the facility and setting the captive clones free.

Suppositions

The story takes place in the future so some technological suspension of disbelief is required. The film supposes the popular (but mistaken) view that clones can be grown to be the same age as the cell donor. It also takes a physicalist view of the mind which is problematic. Neither of these are really a major feature of the film - rather they are simply artistic instruments of the story and thus not a big deal.

Significance

The message is the real strength of this film. It utterly slams the idea that humans can be defined by performance or intellignence level as both the euthanasia and abortion supporters require for their views. Statements from the villain regarding what counts as humanity and life are contrasted with the heroes' lives serving as counterexamples. Intuitively we recognize that these clones are no less human than any other and have the same rights. It does not matter what their "producer" wishes. This is the kind of film Christians should be making - fun adventure with a serious and true message that does not come across as mere propaganda.