Well, by now most of you know that in it’s opening weekend the new Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanson film The Island opened with a pathetic $12.4 million at the box office, finishing 4th in it’s opening weekend behind 2 other films in their 2nd week and 1 film in it’s 3rd.
The Island didn’t look like it was going to be a super blockbuster… but at the same time it looked like it had all the tools to at least to well. Great leads, a solid story and nothing else opening up against it other than the horrible Bad News Bears. It SHOULD have made $27-$33 million in it opening weekend… but it didn’t. The question is… WHY?
What kept people away from The Island? If you haven’t seen it… why did you not go? After all, it is a pretty decent film (see our review on The Video Edition Vol 2), it had big names and good looking action. What went wrong?
My only working theory right now is that the marketing sucked. It’s not that they didn’t market it enough… but the commercials and trailers could never seem to make up their mind if this was a deep thinking/moral dilemma film… or a summer action film. It had to real identity… and so the trailers just left most of us not really sure what it was we were looking at. Thus, not really being sure of what it was, it was difficult for anyone to get excited about it.
What do you think? What is your theory? Why did The Island bomb in it’s opening weekend?
I happened to see the film and thought it was one of the best flicks of the summer. However, it did seem to have that sci-fi plot rip-off quality to it which is why I think that a lot of diehard science fiction fans stayed away from this one. The movie that it bears so many striking resemblences to in my mind seems to be Logan’s Run from the sixties. However, I still think that it is an entertaining movie.
To me, the Island was a great movie. I went to see it twice.
I√Ǭ¥m from Mexico, & the movie just hit 2 weeks ago. The movie was excelent to me; I can√Ǭ¥t think about the wrong side you USA people found. I saw the trailers, I saw a MTV making the movie special where all of the plot of the movie was told, & yet I went to the movies & saw the Island. Why? Well, I felt the story was close to reality somehow. I saw the citys of the future & those weren√Ǭ¥t that exagerated like I Robot or such movies. The music was so great. The sound, the speed, the actors, everything was good. But the best part was the feeling I got with the very not “human part” the humans had. So mean to kill off people to save others. The slogan: that is what I really like. The sense of discovering you have been living a lie, that you√Ǭ¥ll do anything to survive, to live.
Call me nutz, but I din´t see Fantastic Four. I felt it was going to be a weak movie. I went to see the island, because I felt it had a deep message. Because I felt it was not all about dumb creatures stretching or burning things. And also, because of the design of the movie.
Original or not, I don´t care. It´s the feeling what matters to me. Just as Lord of the Rings did. The deep feeling, not just what you see.
Tschüs.
PD.: This and also kept me wondering what was going to happen to the president clone & the others (some mayor revenge caos sounds great!!lol). They should also have slaughtered those bastard guards and the doctor bitch in a cruel scene though. It would have make me like the movie better.
I wasn’t interested in it because it was a Michael Bay film. I’ve wasted my money seeing his crap before and had no intention of doing so again. I love Ewan and I’ve been a Scarlett fan long before Lost In Translation (I’ve been following her around since I saw her in Manny & Lo) but the second I saw “From the director of The Rock and Armageddon” I rolled my eyes and gave Scarlett a quiet mantra of forgivness for not supporting her first big movie as Michael Bay has virtually no substance whatsoever.
What do I think went wrong? I think the trailer gave too much away (why tell me that there is no Island?) and didn’t name all of the other cool people in the movie like Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi and Michael Clarke Duncan.
Now that the movie has bombed, I might go see it. If it really is Bay’s best (and I don’t think that’s saying much) and I know I’m not going to give him his sixth $100 million dollar movie, then I can go knowing I’m not really supporting anyone.
hi, Im from mexico city and the island just opened here this weekend, and i saw the box offcie results from the openning over there so i thought it must be a bad movie or something, but o was suprised to see that it wasnt that bad, but I saw something that made me think of the reason why it flopped over there. I took my grilfriend to see it, and she really dosent care about movies, I mean, she likes them but she really dosent pay attention to the trailers and stuff, but I do, so I remembered the trailer from the movie, not only the international trailer, also the us trailer on the quicktime site. well, anyway, I saw that she was intrigued by the better half of the movie becuse she didnt know what the hell was going on, wich made her experience more enriching than mine, saw I got to thinking, that over there in the us people are more perceptive of the movies they watch, each weekend you have at least 2 new movies so you choose where to put your bucks, and people just didnt want to pay for a movie they already kbew the end to it and for the really intese moviegoers they know what a michael bay movie is, so once the trailer said what was the island they figured that theyve already seen al of the other michael bays shots and action sequences.
I think the marketing of the movie should have gone the way the matrix did, WHATISTHEISLAND…. well, maybe not such a copy of that, but to let people wonder about it, after all it is a scienci fiction movie, and that should have been the predominant idea behind the marketing and not the action….
well, thats what i think, and also that scarlett looks beautiful
“People said Johansson and McGregor’s chemistry was off…
They’re clones!! they can’t have sex or even touch eachother!! they are educated to the level of a 15 year old!! The chemistry is gonan be a little fucking different!”
I wanted to bang Scarlett last year, when I was 15…
Y’all are too harsh. Movie was good. At least it did OK overseas.
All right, the product placement was ridiculous, I mean what in the world would a company want to sponsor such a fucked up place as a clone harvesting centre?! And seriously in the future do you think people are gonna use MSN Search?!
But, thats not what makes or breaks a movie, not these days…
Why did such a good movie do so horrible at the box office?
It got harsh reviews, and I really don’t know why.
Personally, I loved it, it was a remake of Parts: The Clonus Horror (if you’re a myster science theatre 3000 fan, you’ve probably seen it)
It was the most realistic clone or conspiracy movie I have ever seen. Matrix, Logan’s Run, 1984, and the like were all pretty damn fake. This was a pretty believable representation of what would happen.
People said Johansson and McGregor’s chemistry was off, I would just like to tell them to watch the movie…
They’re clones!! they can’t have sex or even touch eachother!! they are educated to the level of a 15 year old!! The chemistry is gonan be a little fucking different!
The story was great, it was not original, but whats the last original movie to hit it big at the box office?
I just really loved the fact that Lincoln Six-Echo and Jordan Two-Delta experience complete innocence. Mature, developed, free in the real world, and experience a first kiss that leads STRAIGHT into sex, thats absolutely beautiful. Its a good movie, I guess you really just have to keep an open mind. But, everyone always loves to hate. I didn’t expect anything going in except Michael Bay super-thriller-power and Ewan and Scarlett’s always amazing camera presence. I got that, but also a really uplifting feeling from this movie, any problems I had with other conspiracy movies like this I didn’t have here. I really wish it did better at the box office, cuz now Scarlett Johansson will probably never be in another sci-fi movie; and I like sci-fi movies.
Quite intresting article posting.I enjoyed reading this.
the Island is entertaining but its definitely not ‘good’
notes: (Stolen from my post at spacejunk.org)
i didnt mind the humor… i wished they played up the fact that these people are essentially retarded more… its crass, but at the end when they’re all free, in my head it was “whee! sea of retards on the loose! look out!”…. thusly, whenever they were escaping or avoiding danger, (not so much Ewen but Scarlett wasnt supposed to be supersmart like him, right?) it was like, “ATTACK OF THE CLONES! RETARD CLONES!”… this massive defence contractor is being outsmarted by retards. ugh.
Ewen’s characters name is Lincoln. he frees the clone slaves. GET IT?
‘the real tom lincoln’ made me antsy for an action movie where two Ewen mcgregors team up with each other.
the product placement was even cheesier here than in I, Robot. why is Puma and XBox sponsoring a secret lair? to instill brand loyalty among a group of clones who apparently dont even buy anything?
speaking of the secret “these people are supposed to be vegetables… shhhhh!!!!!”, you’d think in order to prevent this info from leaking everyone would be ridiculously overpaid… but you see Buscemi’s house and he lives like a hobo… how the hell did they keep this secret?
plot hole: that one guy who’s so antsy to get to the Island and was acting out? he said he was there 7 years… but he’s of the ‘echo’ strain which is supposed to be a 3 year old…
“non-action” action movie moments I enjoyed… Merrick goes after Ewen himself, and does his little speech about the good he does. MONOLOGUING!
one of the board members has a Russian accent and talks evil. choice!
thing i expected but didnt happen: i figured since Merrick was super-rich he’d have a clone too, that would kill him in the end.
its like, 2020…. but NU METAL is still going stong apparently!
I hadnt even heard of The Island until I went to see The Devils Rejects at AMC Kanata.
I’ve just seen The Island. I’m shocked at how good it is, and upset that it’s losing money – completely dying in financial terms and in terms of its potential public impact. I think it’s a good movie with a vital message, but it’s bombing so badly maybe nobody will make another movie like it again.
How could this happen? The people in charge of selling this movie should be fired, they should never work in Hollywood again. How are people supposed to know to go if the movie company doesn’t get the message out, if they just do idiotic publicity that makes the movie look stupid?
Apologies in advance: I want not to be political here, because movie discussions are for fun, and political fights should be somewhere else.
But that said, I’m passionately pro-life, and to me this movie was huge. I understand people don’t want to be lectured at, they can take a moral message and like it, but you have to entertain them too, like with The Passion Of The Christ, which is a faith film and also an art film. Well The Island is a pro-life film and also an action film. It’s the complete package, and the errors in it are trivial compared to that.
Construction Worker: “I *know* Jesus loves you!”
In this case that’s not just a typical cute comic bystander action movie line, it’s the point.
I’m going to pay for the tickets and popcorn for my friends, if I can get them organised to go before it finishes bombing out of the theatre. (The theatre was almost empty!)
If they had let pro-life people know that this was going to be our movie – people should have been arranging group bookings for months in advance. I would have paid for other people to go, because I want people to see The Island, and – hopefully – to learn from it while also having a great time, with chases and explosions and movie stars.
I’m still shocked. How could anyone make such a topical, pointed movie, with things like cloning and the destruction of human life in the news and up for debate – and not tell people to go, on that basis? You can get out the word quietly, and help everyone organise to make the movie a big winner, for the sake of the movie-maker and the movement both. If you have a strong film – and this isn’t a great film like The Passion Of The Christ, bit it’s still a good, fun film – it should be easy.
How could they make a powerful movie like that, and then not tell people, and make it look stupid and just let it bomb like this??
Hasn’t Michael Moore taught us by now that you don’t need everyone in the world to agree with your point for a movie to be a success? Huge free publicity, ticket sales to everyone who agrees with you, plus one ticket each from everyone who wants to see it because of the controversy will do fine.
They chickened out, or they somehow failed to realise the potential mass audience for this kind of film doesn’t do “research” and needs to be told what’s there, and now it’s a bomb and there is no saving it.
:(
freak
GROTESQUE OSCULATORS???
I didn’t go see “The Island” because of Scarlett Johannson’s weird lips. I just can’t handle weird lips, O.K.? That’s also why I can’t go see any of Angelina Jolie’s movies, either. Some people are heavily into weird lips and can’t seem to get enough of those grotesque osculators, but not me. And other people are ambivilant about the whole issue and can take weird lips or leave them alone, but, again, un-uh, not me. Then, other people are TOTALLY grossed-out by weird lips, and that’s the category I fit snuggly into. If you boil my whole movie-going rationale down to one simple, succinct concept, then it would be this: “NO WEIRD LIPS!!!” Thank you so much for your kind attention and have a nice day (unless, of course, you have weird lips, in which case you can just go to hell!)
Love,
Your friend Loose
“Well, I’m sorry for thinking that people are actually smart enough to do their own research prior to watching a movie instead of relying on a trailer to generate their interest.”
Research? AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
That’s hilarious! Exactly what sort of research does one do in order to be able to fairly evaluate whether a movie is interesting? What is this a school project? That’s so sweet. Besides the trailer, knowing who’s involved, plot and perhaps word-of-mouth I don’t need to do a damned thing else. Cheers to you if your way is more thorough.
“So now you can read my mind? Well, that’s your problem then. You’re automatically guessing that you know what other people think and what something should be like based on small impressions. The reason that I find the film interesting has more to do with the acting of both actors, the tension that the film generates, the tight script, and some of the moral/ethical questions that it manages to raise. Is it original? Probably only 5% of it is. But just because a film is not original does not mean that it can’t be interesting on its own and add something unique in the process.”
Perhaps I didn’t phrase that clearly. I was saying that the interesting elements about the film probably came from it’s obvious sources in tons of other sci-fi films, as far as story went. The words “guess” and “assume” are not synonyms: I was merely theorising (accurately I still believe) and the roots of what could make the film interesting to anyone. The story and how it develops is usually a big part of that and about 3/4 of your reasons have to do with that, besides the talent of the actors invovled.
I’m not pretending to speak about the film from the position of anything other than hear-say and my own limited observations of the clips I’ve seen and the past work of the director and script writer. (You seem to be forgetting that doing this was explicitly required by the question put to us.) Permit me some skepticism in believing that Michael Bay & Tredell Owen managed to bring anything “unique” to the process besides a really wicked action scene with, what was it, vehicles flying everywhere and so forth.
i was interested in seeing it when i first heard about it, despite michael bay being attached to it. i still want to see it, but my interest did drop after the newer trailers. if the trailers had focused more on the science fiction aspect (rather than the action scenes) i would have been more likely to have gone by now (and i would have had an easier time of getting friends to come with me… no one else i know wants to see it :P) i also think that emphasizing the scifi aspect would have been a better fit for scarlett johanssen and ewan mcgregor… i see them as being more ‘brainy’ than typical action stars.
Scarlot Johanson doesn’t have chemistry with anyone, except old men and boys in their dreams. She seems like a cold fish with big boobs and pouty lips. I don’t think she connects with females, though obviously, we’re not the target audience for this film. Usually, I like Ewan McGregor, but from what little I could tell from the trailer, his talent and appeal was wasted.
But, hey, I’m a movie goer, and it’s fair to ask why *I* didn’t want to see it even though the target audience was boys between 15 and 25. It apparently didn’t interest them either.
There were three reasons why *I* didn’t go to see it. One, and the prime problem, it’s a Michael Bay film, which means that acting and story are secondary to over the top action and there is unlikely to be even a glimmer of intelligence on screen. Two, Scarlot Johanson is an over rated and dull actress [I’ve seen her in 3 very different films, which is quite enough]. Three, the trailer and promotion failed to do it’s job, which is to pique the interest of potential audiences.
I saw this movie and I greatly enjoyed it. Good acting, good action, good special effects, and a good story. I have no idea why people didn’t go see it except for the fact that Hollywood has churned out nothing but garbage for the most part for the last several years (and then wonder why people aren’t going to the movies) that maybe people didn’t expect it to be any good so they didn’t show up.
I am just wondering,
do you know if The Island was made from a book? Or its just one of those scripts they put together?
I never seen this.But my friend told me about that.
The title “The Island” makes it sound like another F**king reality show. The ridiculously uninteresting billboards look gives no indication why the movie could be slightly interesting. The special FX looke AWESOME, after doing research the story seems interesting and potentially deep. The marketing was the problem on this film 100%. They are to blame for allowing something to be portrayed like this and/or not having the balls to kill the idiot who messed up their vision and allowed this type of blandness to be marketed to a world that is sick of boring pop culture as it is.
I thought it was a pretty entertaining film. I wasn’t thrilled to see Bay re-use his highway chase gimmick from Bad Boys II, but overall the film kept my interest and didn’t let me down too much as a viewer. I was bothered a little by the implausibility of the business on the corportate logo on the side of that building and I thought the way Scarlett’s character produced that gun from nowhere was pretty unlikely. Those were really the only two moments in the film where I rolled my eyes. Overall, though, it was a nice addition to the “dystopian future” sub-genre that I thought had more or less come to an end in the 70’s.
There was too much lead time on the ad campaign, IMO. I was in Hollywood back in May and there were buildings with 50-foot advertisements on their side as you got off on Highland at the Hollywood Bowl. The campaign seemed to lack focus and it was goofy and out there so early that a lot of people had time to joke about it with their friends. It became “the next bad Michael Bay film” long before it was ready to open.
Just my uninformed opinion.
-Rob
kinda like logans run towards the end. Also whats with all the need for suspense. It’s good but it dosent rule a movie. I liked “sings” but i hate’ed “dark water” i think thats what its called.
Well, I did see the film and the trailer. First, I have to strongly disagree with what has been said thus far about the trailer: it didn’t give as much away as some people thought. In fact, nowhere does the concept of “the island” being a VR/”Matrix”-y sim (best way I can describe it) fit in the trailer; I assumed the facility was on an island. As for “chemistry” in a trailer, folks…well, that’s rather extreme, don’t you think?
On to the film and where it went wrong…
As much as I hate to say this, as painful as it is, this is Micheal Bay’s best film. I really got into the first half of the film, and then when Ewan does a dual role it held my intrest a little more. But the explosions and chase sequences had no suspense in them. One scene was even a slight variation of the car chase blitzkrieg from Bay’s previous film (“Bad Boys II”) .
While I suspect that audiences are not only getting tired of Bay but other directors and/or films that seem to perform like you are on retalin and if you are not you should have some, the MTV style rapid editing/videogame like effects may have been neat a few years ago but when everyone does it…you want a break from the norm.
But I think people did see “Island” and told friends to either go to matinees or wait until DVD. When people picked up on at least three problems with the film’s logic/premise, the whole film deflates. Let’s look at those problems, shall we?
1. Clones are worth a lot of money. They need to be kept alive for the ‘original’ people when they get sick or injured. Established well early on, it is just a matter of time when the Micheal Bay we know breaks his own rule. Loads of gunfire and explosions. “Jesus must love you guys” a construction worker quips to our protagonists. No, the miracle isn’t that divine, more like an implausible Hollywood ‘let’s cheat death’ escape. Still, the question remains. Why are the bad guys (?) using such heavy firepower? Well, Bay’s at the helm. What do you expect? And why ditch those nifty harpoon guns for something less tech?
Also, if they want to keep clones healthy, why undernurish some of them at Breakfast?
2. Innocent bystanders and our Bay-ish “Special Ops” team, shot/hurt etc during such shoot ’em ups, and other melees of mayhem. Shouldn’t they have clones too? They don’t have to know about if the clones have feelings and such. Point is, is it only the super rich and the politicians? Why not military? Could there be more than one clone of one given person?
3. “They have the mind of a child”. Ah, but they love sex!
4. The ending of the film would have more power if they were out of time to save the clones from being gassed. It also would have had more impact if it wasn’t an “I, Robot” moment at the end.
5. From where do the Clones escape? Where is the employee entrance to the facility?
6. I mentioned “Matrix” and “I, Robot”. Some people also mentioned the cult B film “Clous Horror”. But also take a look at: “Face/Off”, “THX 1138” (or any Orwell inspired film), “Fortress”, “Dark City”, “Blade Runner”…need I go on? The “Island” concept isn’t that orginal, and that is the main suspect, as it claims to be original.
7. If you kill off the hired help/employees, who will work for your *cough*secret *cough* underground hideaway?
Ren: “Well, I’m sorry for thinking that people are actually smart enough to do their own research prior to watching a movie instead of relying on a trailer to generate their interest.”
I prefer to approach a movie with the attitude that I’m ready to believe and eager to be won over. Apart from that, I’d like the people who made the movie to set their agenda, and I’ll go along with it. I don’t do research. I don’t want to encounter any spoilers. If the star is cheating on his wife or the director is spouting off political opinions I’d hate, I’d rather not know that. Tell me a story, I’m ready to be entranced.
However, the trailers are a legitimate part of the build-up. That’s the movie studio telling me to get in the mood for a film like … this! Fine, I’m all open eyes and ears.
If I had done any research, or even let myself notice what was in front of my eyes, I would have registered: “Michael Bay – Armageddon. Oh no, not you again. Forget it.”
But as it was, I let the guys who made “The Island” tell me what it’s like, and I believed them.
They said: there is no island. The characters aren’t real people. That actor you like, the bad guys get him. Forget the plot, we’re dropping it in your lap now, like spilt soup. All we’ve got is lots of illogical dumb action, and here it is. Looks pretty much like a lot of other things you’ve already seen, doesn’t it. But the main thing we want you to remember is: there is no island. The Island does not deliver. There is no island.
And I say: I believe you.
I don’t think that’s being unfair.
There are other movies out there that do deliver the goods and do deserve my money. I don’t have unlimited money or time to see every movie.
I was interested in seeing the movie, but after viewing successive trailers, I felt very much that I figured out pretty much all that the movie was about by simply viewing those. I couldn’t find a reason to go after that, and I wasn’t exactly rolling in leisure money at the time.
John asked us why we didn’t see it, and a lot of us said it was the trailer. How can you logically and sensibly expect anyone to willingly see a movie that has a sucky trailer, a script done by Tredwell-Owen and directed by Michael Bay? To give it a chance? We aren’t running a charity, Ren.
Well, I’m sorry for thinking that people are actually smart enough to do their own research prior to watching a movie instead of relying on a trailer to generate their interest.
It’s great for you that you found The Island an “interesting” film but I’m guessing that’s because it was an action-packed brew of lots of other actually interesting Sci-Fi films.
So now you can read my mind? Well, that’s your problem then. You’re automatically guessing that you know what other people think and what something should be like based on small impressions. The reason that I find the film interesting has more to do with the acting of both actors, the tension that the film generates, the tight script, and some of the moral/ethical questions that it manages to raise. Is it original? Probably only 5% of it is. But just because a film is not original does not mean that it can’t be interesting on its own and add something unique in the process.
The whole premise just seemed to derivative. Better things have been done on the new Twilight Zone and Outer Limit TV shows. Once the trailer started showing the action scenes you knew that any depth that movie purported to have was out the window.
It is just a case of seen that already too many times.
Can’t wait to watch it when it comes out in our neck of the woods!
“*sigh* I wish people will give this film a chance before criticising it based on a trailer. It’s actually has an interesting story which started off rather eerily.”
John asked us why we didn’t see it, and a lot of us said it was the trailer. How can you logically and sensibly expect anyone to willingly see a movie that has a sucky trailer, a script done by Tredwell-Owen and directed by Michael Bay? To give it a chance? We aren’t running a charity, Ren.
Mojo clearly pointed out that he couldn’t “reasonably judge” the chemistry between the two main characters, again he was just going off the trailer and since he added that caveat I don’t know why you’d point it out.
It’s great for you that you found The Island an “interesting” film but I’m guessing that’s because it was an action-packed brew of lots of other actually interesting Sci-Fi films. I’m guessing that Fantastic Four had an edge because of its comic book origins, although having said that every one figured it would be a flop. But I can’t get annoyed because “The Island” failed, lol. Hopefully the actors will never work with Bay again.
I would rather wait until it comes out on DVD. I like watching my movies at home.
Donna A.
I saw the previews for this movie and i insisted on not seeing it. But then my dad chose to go see it since we saw about everything else. And i must say it’s a very good movie. the commercials are very misleading.
I am a huge Ewan McGregor fan; but I wouldn’t go see this movie based on Michael Bay’s directing; also it just didn’t look interesting enough. It looked like every other Sci-Fi-ey/Action movie that has been out in the last ten years.
In my opinion, and rather curiously, Summer has been a total movie dry spell this year. All the movies I’m remotely interested in seeing aren’t due until Fall or Winter: Brothers Grimm, Serenity, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Valiant (animated. . .but with Ewan McGregor), The Libertine, The Corpse Bride, MirrorMask. ..the list goes on an on. Many of those movies were originally scheduled for an earlier release. Then the studios moved the release date back to the fall, for fear that they wouldn’t get high enough returns if they were relesed across from all these “big summer blockbusters”. . .which all totally sucked. Amazing. I guess what I’m getting at is that the studios are trying too hard for “the big win” and should worry more about the product they’re putting out there. It’s like Alchemy, they’re looking for that magical formula to turn a movie into gold, and just like Alchemy, they will never succeed in making gold out of something that didn’t start out as gold.
Half of the suspected box office gross were teens wanting to see Johansson’s magnificent breats. No breasts. No money.
And Michal Bay shouldn’t whine, R rated films make money, Wedding Crashers – 30 million anyone?
The trailer looked lame. Sounded like an interesting/fun sci-fi flick and then the trailer came out and just looked flat. I didn’t care for the look of the film either.
*sigh* I wish people will give this film a chance before criticising it based on a trailer. It’s actually has an interesting story which started off rather eerily. Sure, eventually it descended into one big chase after another but even that is quite interesting.
And I don’t know how anyone can say that Ewan or Scarlett don’t have chemistry when they haven’t seen the film. I watch it last night and thought that it’s been a while since I see an on-screen couple with nice chemistry.
I don’t think I can ever understand why a film like Fantastic Four managed to climb to the first position with such a crappy writing/story while something that is actually more interesting like The Island gets the shaft from the audience.
john, i think u got the right idea with the trailers…i saw one a couple monthes back and it was amazing, great length, good sounds, good clips..and then when it got closer to summer and i’d go to the theater, i’d tell my friends to watch for the island trailer cuz it looks really good, and the trailer i saw there totally blew.. i thought my friends were thinking i was totally being childish. i never once saw the original trailer play anytime at the theater or on tv..so i think that was a glich.
Possibly, maybe i’m wrong but, compared to alll the other movies that have been released this summer, almost everything else has been either a remake or a sequel or something unoriginal, but thats like “the IN thing” right now (which i totally dont understand becuase i like to see a unique idea)
and then again i remember u having a post not to long ago saying that box office earnings this year have dropped since last year (or the year before) so maybe the island is just keeping beat going
whatever the reason, its a shame becuase micheal bay films have always been blockbuster hits with immense earnings and the island truly is superior in those qualities, i quite enjoyed the movie and will own it on dvd……..come on….at least see it for STEVE BUSCEMI
i went to see it, but i wish i hadnt
It looked good… to rent. I’m not foolish enough to see more than one movie in a given month.
what kept me from going to watch it? well I was broke! yep had to spend all my money on school supplies and books but I am going to go watch it. Maybe it’ll pick up in a few weeks.
“If you haven’t seen it… why did you not go?”
According to the trailers, which I believe:
* There is no island in “The Island”. This is an empty box. There’s nothing to see here. And those pictures of people on the island are obviously fake.
* The characters “aren’t real people.” OK, if you say so.
* They are at best copies of people who are themselves unpleasant, exploiting and lying to “themselves”. That’s not a promising start, that we’re following around pale copies of creeps.
* I have to wait for Michael Clarke Duncan to show up. Then presumably get attached to his character. (Though remember: he’s not a real person.) Then, as I’ve already seen, they get him. That’s a downer. Here’s an alternative idea. Suppose I don’t show up?
* Forget the plot. I pretty much know the plot, because you showed it to me. I hate trailers that do that.
* This is one bleak, depressing setup, or one with a very fake, tacked on ending. I have zero interest at the moment in seeing a movie based on this premise.
* What this movie does have to offer is strictly generic action with no organic relation to the story. I mean, (since it has to be clones) these are not supposed to be super-replicants or anything, folks who should be doing this stuff, and with reasons that drive them forward in doing so. They are clones with completely known and ordinary physical abilities, and no skills or background that would make it reasonable that they do any of this, or surprise their creators in any way, let alone succeed in it all and make it to what must I assume be a fake happy ending.
* The other things this movie has of course is Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett, I thank you for your part in Lost In Translation, and can I see you again in some movie where you are playing a real person? Because you seem to be good at that; And Ewan McGregor. Look, it’s impossible for me to be a Ewan McGregor fan, because he stars in so many movies I wouldn’t want to see no matter who was in them. This is one of those movies.
I may eventually see The Island, if only to talk about it. I mean, if you don’t see, let’s say Catwoman, you can’t talk about it. But I won’t want to see The Island more than once.
If Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor are on-screen for long enough, and there’s any decent dialogue and/or scenes written for them at all, at some point I’m going to hear or see something that will make me smile. I’d like that. But if that’s all there is (my friend, if that’s all there is) I won’t see it again and again just for the one Kissing Scene or whatever. (And did someone say “topless scene”? But of course, that’s not in the ads, and they’re what I’m going on, or rather what I’m not interested in going based on.)
I’ll keep seeing Batman Begins and Sin City (and anything else that’s there) over and over till they finally leave the screens, and then the drought will return, and movies will suck again (like XXX-2, a Vin Diesel movie with no Vin Diesel), and it’ll suck so bad I won’t even want to go when it’s cheap Tuesday. Back to the studio boycott on good new movies. Nothing to see, nothing to see … Waahh!!
Dear Mister Movie Studio Man: I want to go to the movies. I like to go to the movies. Here is my money, which I love to spend only on seeing movies on the BIG SCREEN the way God and Cecil B. DeMille wanted them to be seen. Could you please make it easier for me? Thank you.
And, if you need a hint, next time you want to make a movie called The Island, please have an island in it. Because as soon as I hear the title of a movie, I start building a dream, a happy expectation. (Batman Begins will have Batman beginning, which it does and it’s great. The Fantastic Four, good or bad, has all 1-2-3-4 of the Fantastic Four. Cinderella Man will have a guy who dresses up like … oh well, you know what I wean.) If the whole point of the movie is about disappointing that first expectation, it’s not a blockbuster.
What went wrong? I looked at Michael Bay’s filmography on IMDB …
The Island (2005)
Bad Boys II (2003)
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Armageddon (1998)
The Rock (1996)
Bad Boys (1995)
Ouch.
I did go to see The Island, but I remember seeing the trailer a few weeks before and thinking “I’ve just seen the best parts of this film”. Sure enough, after watching the movie, the trail had shown the best parts like a Cliff Notes version of the actual film. The trailer also killed any suprise you might have at the ending. It actually showed the big final shot of the film. They need to take a lesson from M. Night Shamtheman on how to cut an interesting trailer without giving away the store.
All in all this was a half baked SciFi flick with some major logic problems, spliced to a convoluted action chase movie with characters that I didn’t care lived or died.
Maybe it was because Scarlett’s boobs were too big.
http://www.sky.com/showbiz/article/0,,50001-1190511,00.html
If it was a pretty decent movie with a good story, then the marketers should have made a pretty decent trailer. Instead they presented an incredibly trodden story line, great actors saying incredibly boring script lines (or if you’re Johansson,just looking pretty as required) with the usual Michael Bay infusion of explosions. That’s why I didn’t see it.
From all that I’ve heard the film is one huge ad for GMC, PUMA et.al, interrupted by the big action scenes ever so often.
If it was a pretty decent movie with a good story, then the marketers should have made a decent trailer, which presented an incredibly trodden story line, great actors saying incredibly boring script lines (or if you’re Johansson,just looking pretty as required) with the usual Michael Bay infusion of explosions. That’s why I didn’t see it.
From all that I’ve heard the film is one huge ad for GMC, PUMA et.al, interrupted by the big action scenes ever so often.
Hey there Andrew,
The only problem with the notion that “NOBODY WANTS TO GO TO THE CINEMAS ANYMORE” is that there were 3 other older movies that same weekend that each made over $20 million.
The question is… why did The Island fail while these other ones are doing well?
Cheers!
One reason and one reason only: NOBODY WANTS TO GO TO THE CINEMAS ANYMORE!
Oops
I can think of a couple of things that, while they didn’t necessarily turn me off, kept me from being really interested in the film.
The first is the lack of chemistry between McGregor and Johanson. Obviously, I can’t reasonably judge it without seeing the movie, but the previews seemed to me to show two good actors who weren’t very good together.
The second thing, and this is the big one, is that I felt like I’d seen it before. I’m not even talking about the Clonus movie rip-off stuff. I’m just talking about the subject matter and story line. Between the flood of news stories about cloning and the ethics of cloning that have come out in the last couple of years and the other science fiction movies about genetics (Gattaca) and the government fooling the population (Soylent Green), it all felt like I’d been there and done that.
I doubt I’ll even see this movie when it comes out on DVD. There’s just no interest here.
(By the way, I know there are a slew of other movies that fit the types I mentioned above. Soylent Green and Gattaca are just the first ones to come to mind.)
I can think of a couple of things that, while they didn’t necessarily turn me off, kept me from being really interested in the film.
The first is the lack of chemistry between McGregor and Johanson. Obviously, I can’t reasonably judge it without seeing the movie, but the previews seemed to me to show to good actors who weren’t very good together.
The second thing, and this is the big one, is that I felt like I’d seen it before. I’m not even talking about the Clonus movie rip-off stuff. I’m just talking about the subject matter and story line. Between the flood of news stories about cloning and the ethics of cloning that have come out in the last couple of years and the other science fiction movies about genetics (Gattaca) and the government fooling the population (Soylent Green), it all felt like I’d been there and done that.
I doubt I’ll even see this movie when it comes out on DVD. There’s just no interest here.
(By the way, I know there are a slew of other movies that fit the types I mentioned above. Soylent Green and Gattaca are just the first ones to come to mind.)