In The I-Land, “ten people wake up on a treacherous island and have no memory, they soon discover this world is not as it seems” – only it is what it seems. The spelling of the title is a massive clue to start with and ruins any revelations that follow. Instead we are left with a Lost (complete with flashbacks) meets Dark Matter hybrid that is not afraid to walk over the grave of TV’s past to tell a story.
What saves the show from being totally dire are the actors on it. The likes of Natalie Martinez, Kate Bosworth, Sibylla Deen, Ronald Peet, and Gilles Geary breathe life into narrative of the show and make it as watchable as they can but unfortunately they are restrained by the terrible characters they have to play and a script that is basically a mosaic of popular sci-fi tv shows that are no longer with us.
The show is professionally put together and the crew behind it have earned their money, it just seems too scared as a show to venture beyond its influences. On paper this probably looked like an amazing idea and the next cult phenomenon show where as instead you are left with that “the next episode will make it worth it” feel.
VERDICT: 5/10 Proof that you can’t just copy and paste from TV shows and make it a hit. Some good ideas, some good acting, but little to no surprises in the storytelling, even at the end.
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