Movie Review - The Island

The setting for The Island is the not-too-distant future when cloning technology becomes advanced enough for people to take out an 'insurance policy' against any structural deficiencies in their bodies: put down the requisite cash and get themselves cloned. This clone can then be harvested for body parts.

The clone factory is run by an Evil Genius. The clones are kept in his futuristic clone farm where their lives are carefully controlled and monitored. Whenever the time comes for one of them to be harvested, they are told that their names have been chosen in 'The Lottery' and that they will now spend the rest of their lives in a tropical island paradise, when the reality is actually a quick one-way trip to the operating theater.

The movie is about how two of these clones (Ewan McGregor and the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson):

1. Learn the truth


2. Escape from the clutches of the Evil Genius (Sean Bean) and his minions


3. Get to wear designer clothes


4. Do cool things like taking part in furious chases in a futuristic LA and smashing things up


5. Foil the Evil Genius' plans and


6. Live happily ever after

The Island is a pretty gripping movie. Though the first part of the movie is only so-so (not being a big fan of sci-fi flicks, I found the scenes inside the clone farm a bit irritating -- people being named Lincoln Echo Six, for example), the tempo really picks up after the clones escape, and the climax is quite riveting.