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'The Island': Actors take a back seat to explosions

"Plan Your Escape" is the advertising tag line for the new Michael Bay futuristic action-adventure movie The Island.

Chances are you will want to escape the theater about an hour into this big, clunky, anti-science epic, when the potentially thought-provoking plot gives up and gives in to chase scenes, explosions and special effects.

Dreamworks SKG 'The Island' C- The verdict: Potentially intriguing yarn gives way to typical Michael Bay pyrotechnics and chases. Director: Michael Bay Starring: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi Run time: 127 minutes Release date: July 22, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexuality and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "The Island"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Sometime in the middle of this century, the curiously named Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) are among the residents of a controlled-environment facility, cut off from the rest of the world, which has been contaminated by global disaster.

The only hope for these folks is a public lottery, whose winner is transported to The Island, a paradise-like oasis. But when Lincoln strays beyond proscribed boundaries at the climate-controlled research facility, he learns the truth about their existence and about the island. Suddenly, it is time to run.

Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) is not known for directing human interaction, a rep that need not be revised after this latest release. He knows how to stage an action sequence and how to get studios to bankroll his cinematic mayhem, but this time around, it all seems mechanical, lifeless and overlong.

McGregor and Johansson are still rising actors who serve as mere props here, taking a distant back seat to the shattering glass and assorted pyrotechnics.