::PLEASURE ISLAND::

Tonight, I went to a preview of The Island, Michael Bay's newest movie. And I loved it.

Many of the images look overexposed, and their too-bright graininess feels like walking into a new world, which the main characters do. The plot was intelligent but transparent, and its art direction -- the production of a world about 20 years in the future, wherein familiar-to-us objects are crudded out and new inventions are on the cusp of being invented -- is Academy Award-worthy. About the only thing that marred the film was some over-the-top product placement.

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, sublime architecture themselves, are very, very beautiful.