Product Placement

Went to see "The Island" tonight. It is a "wham bam" action adventure with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as clones (the product) escaping from the laboratory where they were grown as walking spare part repositories for their "sponsors". It takes a little while to get really going, but once it is under way there is a whole lot happening, including a lot of chasing.

Now I'm not particularly against chasing. I spent a lot of time aged five and six enjoying games of tag. But watching other people being chased for long periods of time does get a little wearing, even with the special effects and jazzy camera moves. You start to think "either they get caught or they get away, can we please cut beyond the chase and find out what happens next..".

Anyhoo, a pretty good film. It doesn't make any great philosophical points, the thing that it brought home most strongly to me is that people with small, rimless, glasses who speak with an english accent are very likely to be baddies, and if they are played by Sean Bean the probability rises to 100%.

The most important question for me though was this; If you have invented a machine that can manufacture Scarlett Johanssons, why would you stop at just making one?