As a counterpoint to a couple of great trailers that have come out recently (War of the Worlds and Revenge of the Sith), the trailer for The Island really stands out in it’s sheer awfulness.
I started out thinking I knew what this movie might be about, but by the end of this trailer, I was completely confused.
I mean, it opens up with a straightforward, if mysterious premise: An island where something is going on that allows you the possibility of living forever. Or does it?
They show a long shot of an island. Ok. But then as you get deeper in, it seems that what is happening takes place over a variety of locations that just don’t seem like they are taking place on the aforementioned island. Which is where… I thought… the movie was taking place…
Various shots that cut between what looks like an adventure movie shot in Europe, scenes shot in the wide plains of Africa(?), and some stuff that looks like it’s out of THX 1138.
Doesn’t really motivate me to go sprinting out the door with cash in hand.
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9 Comments
It feels like this movie is “a bit” matrix-inspired.
People live their lives and think that they have found this opportunity to live forever. When in fact, they have just been hooked up to a nice little machine that keeps their body working.
Pretty straighforward to me.
We’ll just have to wait and see what the movie really is about.
Mikael, I guess you’re just brighter than I am.
Vic
I agree with Mikael; it looks like a Matrix rip-off (as if we haven’t had enough of those already). Whether it is or not, the trailer needed to be done better. It was very confusing, and it didn’t clarify what the movie was really about. But, I suppose, should I expect any better from a movie directed by Michael Bay?
Brian
Um, the trailer isn’t confusing at all. And it’s not a Matrix rip off at all. “The Island” is set in the not so distant future, where clones are made so that the original people can have ’spare parts.’ The thing is, the clones don’t know that they are clones. They also don’t know that the ‘island’ is a fictitious place that the clones are told about. When the clones are told they are going to the ‘island’, they believe that they are gaining freedom from the lives theyve been living. But really, they are being taking away so their organs etc can be harvested for the owners. Watch the international trailer too, it explains this a little more clearly than the teaser you have watched.
Tyler,
Yeah, thanks. I didn’t get that at ALL from the US trailer but the international version was much clearer on the plot and much better to boot.
You can catch the international version here.
Vic
wow…You need to stop over analyzing these movie trailers and movies in general!
Hey Jenn, feel free to create a website where you spend time not analyzing movies.
Vic
a)i thought the trailer looked pretty good despite seeming a matrix rip-off. the ambuity it left as to the plot was a nice effect, i was going to see it when it came out, but now that i know the general idea of the plot i might not…
b)you complain about matrix rip-offs, but the matrix was a rip-off of dark city. People have to get inspiration from someplace–its called a “genre”– still admitting of course that originality is a good thing
There’s a difference between movies in the same genre and movies that rip-off other movies. I find it difficult to believe that The Matrix is a “rip-off” of (the excellent) Dark City considering the former came out in 1999 and the latter in 1998. I’m sure that when Dark City was released The Matrix was quite far into production.
Vic