Some critics saw the trailer, and the first half of the film and thought that the film was trying to be profound. They assumed it was going to be a deep film that explored the issues of mortality, slavery, technology etc.
It was not.
In some sense that was a shame. There were a lot of potential in the plot and the initial setup.
But that would miss the point. Because I had 2:30 hours worth of fun. And Scarlett Johnson was very hot.
spoilers
To summarize: the film opens in this futuristic world at some indeterminate point in the future. The individuals in this future world have wierd names like Lincoln Six Echo and look like the characters from THX-1138.
The people are trapped in a sealed environment because the outside world is contaminated due to an environmental disaster except for one place called The Island. Every so often people win a lottery that lets them leave the sealed environment and go to the Island.
Very quickly we figure out that something is wrong. The Earth’s environment is not poisoned. There are people dressed in black watching the whole world behind the scenes using secret cameras making snide remarks.
Soon we discover that the people in this world are clones produced from some bio-material whose tissue is being harvested to extend the lives of their master copies. The Island doesn’t exist. The winners of the lottery are being harvested.
At that point the film switches gear and becomes a high tech chase through the world as two clones escape. The high speed chase borrows heavily from the best films like the Matrix and Face-Off.
The film ends with a scene straight out of Logan’s Run where all of the clones stand outside of their strange prison and realize that there is a big world that they can now inhabit.
