While entering the marketplace with less noise than "War of the Worlds" and "Fantastic Four," "The Island" should soak up much boxoffice coin in the coming weeks, both domestically and internationally.

For a while, the dystopian story about human cloning by Caspian Tredwell-Owen, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci seems more likely to inspire viewer games of Spot the Movie Clone as the filmmakers shuffle through any number of old science-fiction movies for plot points and design ideas. These range from "Coma" to "Logan's Run." Since human cloning itself has become such a hot-button topic, the film feels contemporary. Even Kazuo Ishiguro's recently published novel, "Never Let Me Go," deals with a similar story minus, of course, the chases.

What's troubling from a political point of view is that these filmmakers have, perhaps unwittingly, delivered a film certain to give succor to the religious right. In this ethical horror story, scientists experimenting with human genetics to advance medicine and cure illness are cast as Dr. Frankenstein villains. The chief villain, Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), mouths platitudes about curing leukemia but clearly has greed in his heart.

The early going sets up a humdrum, meticulously controlled environment where white-clad inhabitants lead aimless lives while supposedly being sheltered from worldwide contamination resulting from an ecological disaster. From the first moment, we know this is all a ruse. An omnipotent police force monitors every bodily function, obsesses over the "proximity" of males to females in the quasi-segregated population and refers to inhabitants behind their backs as "products."

Only when the curious and restless Lincoln Six Echo stumbles onto the truth about the facility, which 95% of the audience will already have guessed, and grabs his pal Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson) for his comrade-in-escape does the film take off. Fleeing the fake environment for the real world, the pair stumble into the Arizona desert with a private army led by ex-Special Forces commander Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou) in hot pursuit.

Their ace in the hole is a cynical but accepting worker at the facility, McCord (Steve Buscemi), who in the past has sneaked booze and other contraband to Lincoln. They track McCord to a desert bar and, feeling guilty about his involvement in the cloning enterprise, he agrees to help them.

There is an unfailing law of filmmaking that once Buscemi gets cast in a movie, all the best lines and comic business automatically gravitate to him. Here again he almost single-handedly jump-starts the movie. When he abruptly exits the picture, his presence is truly missed.

Two striking things animate the remainder of the picture. One is highly creative chases on freeways and airways of the future. In one, wheels on a big rig turn into lethal weapons. In another, a futuristic two-man flying machine slams into a glass skyscraper and ends up dangling out the other side, entangled in a sign.

The other gimmick has McGregor playing both the original Lincoln and his clone, one with a Scottish accent and the other American. In an amazing fight scene, using motion control cameras and careful physical movements, McGregor actually wrestles with himself.

McGregor and Johansson's characters comprise an impossible combination of innate smarts and born-yesterday naivete. Yet the young though veteran actors pull these conflicting conceits off with a fair amount of conviction and credibility.

Bay's team hits on all cylinders as designer Nigel Phelps captures the extremes of an ominous future, Steve Jablonsky's surging music urges the action on and Mauro Fiore's energetic cinematography blends nicely with the many digital effects.

The overwrought sci-fi action thriller The Island could be renamed Revenge of the Clones.

Despite being talented and handsome leads, Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor lack chemistry in The Island.
Warner Bros.

This frenzied fiesta of firepower is about cloning people for spare parts, but the movie is a clone itself. Possessing no new ideas, it reworks and borrows from such films as Blade Runner, The Matrix and Logan's Run.

Director Michael Bay may be taking his revenge on those who have derided his previous testosterone-fueled films, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys. If just the titles of his previous movies fill you with dread, The Island is not your preferred destination.

The presence of the talented and handsome leads, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, doesn't add much to this loud, sometimes frenetic cinematic assault. Disappointingly, they lack chemistry. The notion that someday the rich and well-connected can stave off disease and old age with cloned body parts is an intriguing premise. But it gets lost in the mayhem. (Related video: Watch the Island trailer)

Set in the mid-21st century, The Island opens in a sterile facility housing a community of clones who have been told they are the sole human survivors of a massive ecological disaster. They are controlled like schoolchildren with vapid admonitions such as "a healthy body is a happy body," amplified over loudspeakers. Their every move is monitored. If members of the opposite sex stand too close to each other, they will be cited for a proximity violation. They eagerly await a daily contest in which someone is selected to live outside the community on a lush, verdant island, the only uncontaminated spot left in the world. Or so they believe.

McGregor, who plays an unusually curious clone, starts questioning his surroundings and finds out the nasty truth, the specifics of which we won't reveal. He and best pal Johansson break out of the facility. There is some comedy to be had in their cluelessness about the real world. And there is plenty of calamity. They destroy much of downtown Los Angeles as they run from police and a powerful security official (Djimon Hounsou) in an armored Humvee. A spectacular scene in which his Hummer is blown up will delight those who oppose the gas-guzzling behemoths.

The fleeing renegades wreak havoc despite the mantra with which they were indoctrinated: Be pleasant and peaceful. And although the facility's officials have removed the sex drive from all the clones, there is a hint of romance between the pair once they hit L.A.

Despite all the firepower, the movie is only sporadically exciting. There is a lot of downtime in which to question the logic of the story.

If you enjoy watching things blow up, seeing attractive people imperiled and watching protracted chase sequences, The Island might make a decent summer getaway.

But when it comes to real intrigue, there are much better summer escapes.