Dark Island (2010 TV Movie) User Reviews

Another Terrible Movie of Island of Experiments of an Evil Military Corporation

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 8 August 2010]

The Altracorp Corporation uses the Mare island as testing ground of biological weapons, but the research team loses control of the experiments and disappears. A rescue team formed by Raymond Hua (Zero Kazama), Rachel Gant (Mary Christina Brown), Doctor Sophie Miller (Victoria Floro), Allen (Rob O'Brien) and Will Cain (Jai Koutrae) depart from Stillwater, British Columbia, to the island. When they arrive, they find one survivor, Mitchell (Eric Raymond Lim), infected by the experiment and a deadly black smoke has been unleashed threatening them. When they return to the beach, they find that their vessel has disappeared and they are trapped in the remote island.

"Dark Island" is another terrible movie of "island of experiments of an evil military corporation". The unoriginal screenplay uses the black smoke from "Lost'; black eyes from "Supernatural"; a collection of clichés with ridiculous plot points; and an awful and amateurish ham acting. The cast might have been chosen in a cinema school, highlighting the speech of the uncredited guy that performs Will's superior in the army. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Ilha das Sombras" ("Island of the Darkness")

A below average film

[rick3197 · 3/10 · 25 November 2010]

Criticism is something that a lot of people find it hard to both explain and deal with and there are some who just ignore it all together, as such Dark Island is one of those many low budget action/horror movies that has so far had received very negative reception from critics, but from the film company's point of view they probably do not care as long as the film sells well enough to make money. Dark Island copies the many successful franchises like the Lost and Resident Evil series by putting them together with a cast of unknown actors and first time directors on some Canadian island.

Why is this film bad? The first question should be what isn't bad? Well it's not the low budget, as some low budget horror films have succeed both financially and critically like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. It's not the special effects which I think are some of the best special effects I have ever seen on a low budget movie, the detail on the black fog monsters is very good but I personally think CGI means very little when judging how good a film is, and I hate those Avatar lovers who only think Avatar is good because of its state of the art computer generated imagery.

The acting is only decent at best, just by watching the film you can tell that the actors are trying so hard to play the roles of their characters to make their acting as realistic as possible, the acting does not suck but they could at least be more relaxed about it.

Now for the answer to the question, why is this movie bad? Well it's the story, editing and script (if they even used a script and storyboards) the story is just plain bad from the start to finished and it has been done many, many times before it in far better ways. A group of people from different backgrounds are sent to a secret island that is run by Altracorp an evil corporation that specializes in developing biological weapons for the military, the same as the Umbrella corporation from the Resident Evil series, each character is not who they seem and they all have their own flashback sequence like in the Lost TV series, the story also has a twist ending which is not really worth waiting for, as I watch the film I feel as though the film's target audience was a dumb, uneducated audience. Now that's the story covered, another bad thing about the film is its action sequences which are very poorly edited and badly produced, they are often very cheesy and are not real enough to be taken seriously.

I will not be recommending Dark Island to anyone wanting to see an action sci-fi movie. It's not the worst movie I have ever seen but it does add to my top 10 worst movies I have ever seen list and while its special effects did save it from a 1/10 rating I still dislike this film and hope that this review will save you from both renting or buying this movie, it does not deserve your hard earned money.

3/10

Watchable, but not much else

[jdollak · 3/10 · 2 April 2012]

The positive traits of this movie are largely technical. The sound is clear. The lighting is actually sort of pleasing, since they don't rely on shadow for tension. And the picture is entirely focused well. The pacing is perfectly fine. Despite the weaknesses of the movie, I rarely felt too distracted, and the story moved right along.

But those things said, this movie feels sort of like a restrained Uwe Boll movie. The plot is pretty straightforward, but there are reversals on reversals as the story moves further.

The enemy the team is facing seems to be the same black cloud that appeared in The House on Haunted Hill. But this time, they can fight it with fire extinguisher guns!

The plot doesn't bother me too much though, it just felt like an adaptation of a video game.

But what does play badly in this movie is that the cast is inadequate for the silliness of the script. By this I mean, the cast is probably just fine. But the script has so much comic-book dialogue that it's hard to play those lines and come across genuine. As a result, there are a lot of people who sound like they're acting as hard as they can.

Lost, black eyes, pain to watch

[hindsiteman · 17 May 2010]

Lost has become one of the leading patterns for movie writers. Thinking like that and not following it through with great acting is like eating a bitter Ice cream. The movie has nice animations, fighting scenes, a bit cheap on the props because I clearly saw add/remove icon on the laptop. Better fix that next time. Acting is degraded. They not only lack acting skills, but the talent is totally non existent. The cast look like they've been rallied in some nearby coffee shop along side with their cheap looking laptops. Screenplay occasionally drops (like you know what) bits and pieces of characters lives. It doesn't explain a thing. It only shows how little you need to make a film today. You don't have to poses skills other than being someones nephew, or having a 3rd day black belt, to be in the cast. Just don't expect people to love your work!

Below average Sci-fi horror that borrows way too much.

[jhpstrydom · 2/10 · 1 April 2011]

I've gone through a trend of low budget movies that were not really bad but they were just not worth recommending, DARK ISLAND was probably the weakest low budget film of them all, it was like having LOST and THE SUPERNATURAL tossed in a blender add to that some really bad acting from virtually every cast member and a pace that goes from slow to slower at times.

Aside from the acting the film did have its entertaining moments but out of the previous bunch of films I saw which include ANNHILATION EARTH, QUANTUM APOCAPLYPSE and the game to film adaptation of THE KING OF FIGHTERS, this is the last one I would recommend, its not even a good time passer because it is way too slow for that.

Wish I'd been stuck on an island for the last 83 minutes instead of watching this movie...

[Prophet87 · 1/10 · 7 March 2011]

I wasn't really expecting much from this movie and I was right not to.

The plot has been used a million times before and as for the acting it was more wooden than the trees on the island.

I saw no true chemistry between the actors and felt no emotion for any of the characters.

In a nutshell this movie has an overused plot, poor acting and a cheesy script.

I've seen some pretty poor movies in my time and this is up there with the worst of them to be honest.

That's about all I have to say on this one.

83 Min of my life gone

[sfinancing · 1/10 · 24 December 2010]

I would like to say that this movie had some redeeming features but unfortunately cannot.

The low budget is obvious, the props silly, the special effects unimpressive. Any of this could be overcome with a good storyline, strong acting, great characters or a gripping fast paced plot. Unfortunately the acting is poor, the characters 2 dimensional and unbelievable. The plot is predictable. The duologue is trite.

Unfortunately there is no zero star vote, the only actual good point that I can give this movie is that it is over.

Don't waste your time with this one.

Well...

[nsexton-2 · 4/10 · 16 January 2021]

...it's hard to review a movie when you can not hear what is happening. Watched this on a reputable streaming service, but when the background noise and music is at 70% and the primary dialog is at 30%,it kinda makes it hard to judge. Looked like a good movie, but who knows. I am not turning on subtitles for a movie in my home language.

Therefore, 4 out of 10.

Learn you idiots.

BIRD ON A STICK

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 19 April 2019]

The film opens on Dark Island as "test 48 did not go as planned." The island was used to test bio-fuel by Altracorp, which also has military applications, wink wink nudge nudge. A group of people are assembled to investigate the lost contact with the island.

The bio-agent is a CG black smoke which we see early and often. It really isn't scary. As it turns out everyone on the crew is not who they claim to be, which made the film on the inane side. A twist is fine, but please tie it into the beginning, drop a clue or something. Too bad they didn't make Tuck, the bar drunk, a secret company agent.

The dialogue is rather plain and the characters cycle from lame to too much testosterone. Poor use of eye candy. One girl unzips her suit, claims she is going to shower then the camera changes scenes. What was that all aboot? Is this film Canadian or what? Oh wait. It is Canadian. Okay I understand now.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

Nice comedy

[Lunasnow2484 · 1/10 · 24 July 2014]

Wow.... I don't even know where to begin. My brain is still in a haze as I am still trying to search for answers to this burning question I had as the movie played......WTF AM I WATCHING?! This movie made absolutely no sense! The whole movie was based on the two main characters Ray and Rachael (Rachael Ray??) trying to stop some kind of experiment gone wrong on an island. They portrayed the character of Rachael as some sort of cold blooded bad ass, but she was the first to get F'ed up. As for Ray? Ray, Ray, Ray....... I think he was more lost than me. He was so confused that he didn't even know what he was feeling throughout most of the movie, so he just went with poker face. "I am so sorry I had to lie to you" *poker face" God knows I have paid a heavy priiiiiiccee!!!" *poker face (Rachael gets shot in the head and Ray crouches over her body *poker face) It seemed that whoever was holding up Ray's lines with the flash cards wrote them too small and he was squinting to read the whole time. It was the most horrible acting I have ever seen. At the end, Ray was in a struggle with one of the crew who had betrayed them. Ray dodged some serious bullets by just side stepping. Neo's got nothing on him. Then, I guess he was too busy squinting to read his lines and then he got shot. No worries though because in the next scene, Ray Ray completely forgets that he was shot and just carries on. The only thing good out of this movie was that me and my fiancée got a good laugh out of it. Just watch this as it was meant to be, a comedy.

Wasn't to bad

[jamessmith-69578 · 4/10 · 15 May 2020]

This film had an interesting plot however, it wasn't scary. And in my opinion, I hate getting scared, bit if this film wanted to be scary, it wasn't. And it is made by a popular youtube channel called corridor. I like their channel and I didn't think they did a bad job. Their vfx now is better than back in 2010. But, I overall had fun with it.

Why did I rate high on a boring movie?

[vampyrecowboy · 8/10 · 20 September 2010]

I gave this an 8...not because the movie was scary or action filled or or even funny or had great effects.

It was boring, slow, tiring, nothing exceptional except...a very unforeseen twist.

Plot for the most part was on the slim side and well scares were pretty much non-existent.

However, there was one thing that saved this from making me feel like I wasted more time than I should have and that was the very end.

Maybe the writer just wanted to drag out something so tedious and mind numbing, or maybe it was done by accident...who knows...

However the secret ending is what made me write this review by giving it credit.

Usually an entire movie is wrapped up with some decent story telling to make me give it a high mark.

This will probably bore most people - until the very last moments...which makes the long haul all worth it.

Not Bad

[dctabv · 7/10 · 29 March 2022]

A weapons development corporation looses contact with its small research facility on a remote island in British Columbia. It then sends a team there to find out what happened.

There are many twists and turns in this movie with a completely unexpected ending - well at least i did not expect this ending considering how Hollywood writes movies.

There are no great special effects but overall this is a decent movie.

Odd and not great but still watchable

[jmbovan-47-160173 · 5/10 · 16 May 2021]

This isn't a great movie. But there is some decent ideas floating around here. Unfortunately, it seems the budget made expanding on these ideas impossible to do. There is some nice "what is going on?" moments. Doesn't cover for the rest of the film though.

Very very very very bad movie, don't waste your time with this...

[jrubbrec · 17 May 2010]

When the movie started, I kinda got a feeling like it's a bit of a remake of Ghost Ship, but 15 minutes later I had to change my mind about it... it kinda took the elements of the series Lost. Maybe the writers thought that if they took the elements from a hugely successful story, that they couldn't go wrong. Well... they were wrong, BIG TIME! People changing into a black killer smoke and for some reason they have to get off the island?! People trapped on the island and of course no way to get off of it? Doesn't it sound like Lost? Well... if you haven't seen lost, go buy the DVD pack instead of wasting your money on this movie. At least you'll enjoy hours watching a good story, instead of this screw up.

"I have to finish this thing. No more than ever".

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 3/10 · 6 August 2022]

A motley group of people go to a Canadian island where there has been some kind of biological testing to find another motley group of people who went there earlier. Things don't go well. On the plus side the film was reasonably shot (except for the bouts of shaky cam) and the locations pretty. On the negative side, where does one start? The plot is moth eaten and the acting extremely pallid. The actual biological threat was vague in its outcomes as sometimes it was a black cloud (that roared!) or a killer tree or turned people into black-eyed zombies or produced goo encrusted seabirds, Characters acted in ways no real person would except in poor movies like this. The two plot twists near the end were difficult to spot as they made no sense whatsoever. (The writers probably thought they were being clever. They weren't). I yawned all the way through.

However one must admire Laura Schartner who co-produced, casted, production designed, did costume and did make-up for the film. Poor thing, must have been worn out. Hope she got five salaries.

Surprisingly nice

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 23 May 2010]

This movie surprised me. I thought I was in for a bore-fest, but it actually turned out to be quite nice.

The story was not without flaws, but it was good enough to keep me interested, and had a fairly good, steady flow to it. There were times when the movie was halting though.

The effects in "Dark Island" were also quite nice. Especially the CGIs for the animated black cloud. It looked really good, and moved in a very believable way. The make-up effects were good as well.

As for the cast, well I was not familiar with any of the ones in the movie, but most of them did a good job, despite often having halting dialogue to work with.

There weren't any scary moments or thrills throughout the movie, which kind of dragged the overall experience down a notch.

Typical Amateurish Fare...

[pedgarshannon · 2 March 2017]

Where to begin? I'll give you two reasons I gave up on this movie half-way through.

First of all, it would be nice to see a cast of adults, behaving like adults, working together in the face of mystery and danger to accomplish their mission. But no, here we have our typical 20- somethings, acting like bickering 12-year olds, because that's what passes for "drama" in silly films like this.

And, why, oh why, can't producers ensure that at least one member of the crew be a veteran if they are going to depict military personnel? I don't care if it's the grip, the caterer, or even the honey pot driver... if you're going to show Army soldiers in uniform, have SOMEBODY on board who knows how a uniform is worn. In this movie, we have two doofus characters portraying soldiers wearing "Class A" green uniforms. One of them has two rows of ribbons, and various unit citations, indicating significant time on duty. And yet he has no rank. I mean, even a soldier who has just completed basic training is at least a "mosquito wing" Private E-2. His "commanding officer" had Sergeant E-7 stripes displayed. And both of them, for heaven's sake, had no idea how to wear a beret. Anyone who's drunk a bottle of French wine knows that you pull it over to one side, but these goof-balls--- well, one of them had it pulled down tight on his head like a beanie, and his "commanding officer" had his pouffed up in an expanding circle like a big muffin. I gave it all up right there...