Roger Ebert Was A Fan Of Ewan McGregor And Scarlett Johansson's Sci-Fi Flop

Michael Bay isn't exactly known for making the smartest films, as Ben Affleck so amusingly pointed out in the commentary for "Armageddon." You could argue Bay makes the dumbest yet visually most bombastic action flicks that are pure explosion/gun operas. By that standard, his 2005 action-sci-fi, "The Island," starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, may have been his most complex movie. That's not to say it was wholly original since it was practically a remix of more provocative sci-fis like Michael Anderson's "Logan's Run" and Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," a derivative pastiche spiced up by Bay's megalomaniacal tendencies. Yet I wish he made more like it instead of the atrocious "Transformers" films that once dominated.

"The Island" follows Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Johansson), living in an underground compound in a society operating by strict rules. They've been told that Earth has become uninhabitable (save for a pathogen-free island), and only a lucky few get to make it up there through a lottery system. However, the more curious Lincoln and Jordan get about the outside, the more they find out about the lie they've been fed since day one.

Soon, the two learn that they're actually clones created for organ harvesting for the rich and powerful, and they escape together to gather the whole truth and live a life they weren't destined to have. Although initial reviews were mixed, the late Roger Ebert was on board, saying, "The first half of Michael Bay's film is a spare, creepy science fiction parable, and then it shifts into a high-tech action picture. Both halves work. I liked them both, up to a point, but the movie seemed a little too much like surf & turf."

Given Bay's output in the '90s and early '00s, including "Bad Boys," "Armageddon," and "Pearl Harbor," "The Island" felt like an outlier, conceptually. Its first half was almost too cerebral and restrained compared to the dead-simple, full-on, adrenaline-ridden work he's delivered in previous pictures, yet still retaining his unmistakable directing style. Don't misunderstand, he didn't go highbrow in any capacity, but the script (written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Caspian Tredwell-Owen) actually had some thought-provoking ideas, executed low-key instead of being purely designed to impress anyone under the age of 18.

Naturally, that build-up was merely a way to the rambunctious Bay madness he unleashed in the second half. From stellar shootouts to ridiculously mesmerizing chase scenes under the setting sun to over-the-top explosions, Bay always relished in what he loves and excels at. And the futuristic dystopian milieu he paints here is a neat backdrop for all that stuff he pulls off. Or, at least, that's how it felt to many back in the mid-aughts, including Ebert.

Yet it was the first time in Bay's career when the numbers just weren't there. Critics were mixed on "The Island" (and that's being generous, given its surprisingly low 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes), which wouldn't have mattered all that much if it was still a crowd-pleaser. But the film's box office performance suggested it wasn't exactly what moviegoers came to expect from him. Against its $126 million budget, "The Island" only grossed $163 million worldwide — a low point for Bay compared to his previous commercial successes. Still, if I were to pick one Bay movie that's been slightly underrated from his earlier work, it'd be this one.