The Inhabited Island (2008)

not horrible nor great

I wanted to but couldn't!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I don't understand critics who complain the movie script is not really along the lines of the book, or that it is a bad copy of the book's intent. Looking at a larger view, I have to ask, does the movie portray a truly compelling story to the larger audience on the mass market? The majority of which never read the original book (and likely never will). And the answer is absolutely yes. Movie presents both enjoyable story and screenplay to watch. Also by easy comparison with other (mostly Hollywood) titles in the same genre within last decade. This notwithstanding the fact that many of comparable Hollywood flicks have had larger budgets by far. Having said that, it is great Russian cinema industry attempt to create equally good quality material. I would definitely recommend this movie.

Phew, what to say about this movie. There is simply too much to discuss. This is quite the impression you will get watching this film. It rushes from theme to theme, literally rushes! Let's start at the very base, a Strugatsky novel. I read a few Strugatsky stories, most notably of course "Roadside picnic". "Obitaemyy ostrov" however is not "stalker", no 10 out of 10 that is.The brothers Strugatsky were Soviet writers, so some of their stories dealt with the soviet ideal human. In "Obitaemyy ostrov" earth has made it, and no doubt, all humanity transformed into perfect (probably communist) beings. That means every human being utilizes all of his/her potential: Mentally, physically and ethically. The latter is of most importance. A perfect communist is of almost angelic moral integrity. Whatever powers he will possess or obtain, he will not use these in any selfish or abusive way.That said, our "hero" is a most beautiful, well build "Übermensch" (astonishing blond an blue eyed) from earth, with perfect integrity and morality. He is young, and unfortunately crashes on a strange planet. His spacecraft explodes, he is lost. As he is an "Übermensch", he is not desperate.In fact he is imprisoned by a totalitarian state, escapes by accident, falls in love, and the story really gets complicated from then on. Right now there are true spoilers to come. So stop reading, if you want to watch the movie unbiased.The unknown fathers reign over a city, that is (of course) a mixture of Metropolis and Blade Runner, and a little design of Dune. As the story evolves you will learn that almost everyone is controlled be rays send out by so called defense towers. These rays work at a subconscious level. Our hero is immune, as is a group of people, fought by the state as terrorists. Well the (super-)earthling becomes (in order of appearance) a prisoner, guard elite soldier, free individual and lover, terrorist, convict, runaway convict, terrorist leader, member of the establishment, revolutionary and finally earthling again. The hero is somewhat naive. He tries all these positions like a youngster without any prejudices. In the end, he knows about the foundation of the political system. The political elite of the state resembles a bit Stalin's system. The state's attorney is in trouble. That means he is about to be murdered. He tries to convince our hero to destroy the central of the ray-emitting towers and take over the power after wards. With the help of some co-convicts the hero succeeds, but destroys the central of power instead.One of the very nice and intelligent moments of the movie is the instance, where the friends of the hero take over power. And one really feels the temptation of power. Almost brilliant.One high ranking member of the government turns out to be human (thus superhuman) as well. He is furious about the actions of our young hero. The so called roamer tries to change the system since 20 years. But he tries to avoid unnecessary losses or victims. He is the man for the slow change, no revolution. The young hero is the revolutionary, simply incapable of bearing the injustice. While exchanging some intellectual backgrounds the roamer and the hero beat hell out of each other. Really strange (for super-humans) I think. And naturally, the young rebel insists on a quick change.The movie is optically splendid, albeit the cgi is about 10 years behind. They have enough budget to make things look convincing most of the time. Designwise they steal from a lot of movies.The film was more entertaining than I expected. But it has too much to tell to be really great. A lot of interesting things just rush by. Well, and the same might be true about this comment.

I loved this movie and I urge all to watch it! This is the biggest budget blockbuster movie Russia has produced to date and it does not disappoint. Nowadays we get so many high-budget blockbuster films - Transformers, The Day the Earth Stood Still - that have great special effects and are eye-candy visually, but offer little or no substance besides those fine visuals. This movie proves that when great computer generated special effects supplement an interesting plot and thought- provoking ideas, then you get truly great science fiction. Yes, when a movie has more dialog, more character development, more story-line, it is actually a much better movie! The plot in this movie is intricate, dynamic, and detailed. It may be hard at first to keep track of all the new characters and developments in the movie. But that is because the plot is based on a great novel by Strugatsky brothers. It is not simple, but is meant to present various well-rounded characters and ideas to the viewer. On one level you have a simple love story going on. On another level, there is a whole country in trouble.One of the great things about Strugatsky's fiction and this movie captures that is that though the outer shell of the story is fictional, there are clear allusions to the real world we live in today. This is what ultimately makes this such a powerful movie. The world of Sakarash is very much like Soviet Russia and Russia today in so many ways. The way that the power elite uses media and technology to control the masses, to make them helpless slaves is a reflection a system that is in place in our world today, some places especially.

This attempt at bringing a Strugatski brothers novel to the modern Russian screen is without a doubt a success.A little about the plot: young explorer Maksim Kammerer crash lands on Sarakhsh, a world enveloped by nebula gasses where people have never seen the stars. The Unknown Fathers, a group of powerful oligarchs, brainwash the population to hate other nations. Kammerer, aloof in his superiority, sets out to free the people of Sarahksh of oppression and paranoia. I wont ramble on - suffice to say that Bondarchuk has done well, considering the sheer scale of the novel. Vasiliy Stepanov (as Maksim Kammerer) is sexy, cool and a blond head taller than his alien companions (a fine nod to the novel and a detail I did not expect). He was also most excellent in the action scenes.Bondarchuk shines in his portrayal of Umnik (literally the Clever One). I especially enjoyed the scenes of him writhing in agony in the bath. A great performance. I feel compelled, after reading some of the other comments, to say that the novel, like this movie, is often comical...Direction-wise there are some minor continuity errors and a few places where the pace slows unexpectedly, but the film sticks quite closely to the novel and this may not have been avoidable.Compared Konstantin Lopushansky's 2006 adaptation of Gadkie Lebedi (highly recommended to scifi fans, this brooding picture seems to have slipped the under the radar), the film is of course rather crude and soulless - but that would be like comparing a novel by Banks to one by Lem.I recommend it to everyone and will be waiting for film two (the adaptation can only be truly judged then) and a directors cut of the two together in a nice Hollywood package.