Every Michael Bay Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

7. The Island

The Island
Warner Bros.

While The Island didn't turn out as strongly as it could have, its concept is Bay's most intriguing to date and you can sense the director giving it his all - but ultimately, he chokes on his own ambition.

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson star as residents of a facility that's shut off from the outside world - a facility that's hiding a dark truth that their characters will soon discover.

The Island is a tale of two halves. The first part of the movie is an engaging, subtly thrilling sci-fi mystery, but once that mystery has been brought into the light, the movie devolves into a generic, samey action-thriller that feels at odds with the slower pace of that first half.

These two pieces do not go well together at all; Bay chooses to unearth the facility's secret with a hail of bullets, explosions and chases, directing a loud finale that feels incredibly jarring after the mostly quiet setup you've just sat through.

The Island is interesting, and definitely worth a watch - just don't expect Bay to ditch all those noisy 'Bay-isms' that detract from most of his movies.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!