“I’M getting into characters and actors, and building the story,” director Michael Bay says excitedly.
And after only five movies!
“The Island” is a veritable think piece for the man whose name has become synonymous with the big-budget summer action flick, the movie you go to when your brain’s too fried to function.
Cases in point: “The Rock.” “Pearl Harbor.” “Armageddon.”
Bay’s over-the-top melodrama and penchant for nonstop, explosive special effects – often at the expense of plot coherence – has earned him more than a little mockery from filmmakers and moviegoers alike.
Last year, “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone lambasted the director in their puppet action-film parody, “Team America: World Police.”
“I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark/When he made ‘Pearl Harbor,'” one of the characters sings in a love song. “I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school/He was terrible in that film.”
Can Bay change their minds with “The Island”?
The film does have an identifiable plot – a creepy sci-fi one, no less, with a cloning-science morality question at its core. And Bay says he wants people to walk out of this movie thinking.
That’s right, thinking.
“We all want to live longer. How far would you go? Would you have a clone if you could?” he says.
Then there’s the fact that nothing blows up for at least half an hour – a feat Bay is keen to congratulate himself for accomplishing.
“I think it’s great how I really held back,” he says. “I’m trying to challenge myself by doing a slower build. I draw it out for 30 minutes.
“But,” he admits, “I’m thinking, is the audience gonna get bored?”
With an explosion-free first act, Bay had no choice but to throw in a little character development.
Ewan McGregor, as Lincoln Six Echo, is something of a complex guy, for a clone (or a Bay leading man).
Steve Buscemi’s McCord, a worker who befriends Lincoln, faces an ethical dilemma that does not involve weapons of any kind.
And Sean Bean (“Lord of the Rings”), who plays the cloning center’s director, is a compelling villain: a mad scientist who’s hell-bent on extending human life.
“On this one Michael really took his time with the actors,” Buscemi observes.
This is presumably in contrast with Buscemi’s other Bay movie, “Armageddon” – where the closest thing to a serious acting moment is Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler debating the nature of animal crackers.
Of course, everything is relative – and “The Island” certainly has its share of Bay hallmarks.
In addition to the gunplay, car chases and giant objects collapsing, there are futuristic flying motorcycles, interactive desks and a $7 million sports car.
But Bay says he’s pretty much obligated to include these things.
After all, that’s why you hire Michael Bay.
“I’m getting less interested in action – I’d like to do a black comedy,” he says. “But when they give me the script, they’re like, ‘You gotta do that thing you do.'”
