10 Movies That Abandoned Awesome Ideas Halfway Through
5. Clones Realising They're Clones - The Island
Much like In Time, Michael Bay's The Island boasts a top-notch - albeit considerably less original - conceit, but throws it out with the bathwater half-way through to become a far more conventional sci-fi action flick.
A dystopian sci-fi thriller in the vein of Logan's Run, The Island is initially concerned with two people, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), coming to realise that they're clones and were created solely to be used as organ donors for their wealthy "originals."
It's a fascinating concept which offers up some tantalising existential considerations as well as some ever-timely "eat-the-rich" social commentary.
The first half of the movie does a great job of onboarding the audience to this world and then dropping the bombshell, but after they escape their walled-off community it devolves into a bog standard - if visually stylish - chase film.
The character-driven intrigue of the early going is ditched in favour of relentless action for the remainder, and what appeared to be one of Bay's more thoughtful works ended up becoming, well, just more Bayhem.