Brave New World

Last night I saw the sleeper movie of 2005. “The Island”. I saw the trailer for this movie online a while ago and decided I wanted to see it but never really heard about it again until yesterday when I saw it playing in the cheap theaters. It was a small child nestled between the monolithic giants of the summer silver screen I guess. It’s weird though I felt like there was a good amount of money that was poured into this film. Look at the cast list alone and you can see that.

Think Aldus Huxley’s “Brave New World”. The Island is a poignant commentary on some of today’s toughest scientific and moral questions. But they’re questions that need to be wrestled with if we’re to continue on the path we’re currently striding down. I can’t really divulge much else without giving away too much. If you check out the trailer you can probably figure out a enough and if you have read Huxley’s thought provoking work you can put it together.

Now this is the conspiracy theorist in me: I wonder if somehow the scientific community has enough clout with the Hollywood community to sway how much publicity a movie gets. I believe it’s only a matter of time before the issues that are presented in this movie are real issues we’ll be facing. Thus I could see large corporations that have something to gain from the technology discussed in the film using their corporate weight to push this movie through the money-making machine we as the consumer have created a bit quicker than other movies we’ve seen this summer. Just some off-the-wall but intriguing thoughts....I think.

Anyway great film direction. Great art direction. Great film processing. Great visual effects and even better action sequences. Only quips about the film: 1) The pacing drags just slightly in the middle but wasn’t a serious issue for me. 2) For a second there I thought the movie was going to end with the premise that the pinnacle of human existence is experiencing sex. Don’t get me wrong, this was a clean movie, but...well just watch the film.