In 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo is a resident of a seemingly "Utopian" but contained facility. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully-controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to The Island — reportedly the last uncontaminated location on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie.
The Island is nothing so dull as a total failure. But it has enough surprises up its clingy white sleeve to make you wish it were better.
– Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com,
22 Jul 2005
rotten:
You have Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, these terrific actors reduced to saying, 'Go, go and duck' and hanging from buildings and all that stuff. And it just falls apart.
– Richard Roeper,
Ebert & Roeper,
25 Jul 2005
rotten:
Since Michael Bay never knows when enough is enough, every chase is restaged over and again and the narrative matrix is as simplistic as it is repetitive.
– Rex Reed,
New York Observer,
28 Jul 2005
rotten:
What the clone lovers find is a new world -- it's 2019 -- of highway collisions, flying motorbikes, exploding buildings, bad acting and moral incoherence, very much like old Bay movies.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
28 Jul 2005
rotten:
As usual, Bay stages the action at a breakneck pace that's never frenetic enough to obscure his film's plot holes and logical lapses.