The first half of Michael Bay's futuristic epic The Island will appeal to fans of intelligent science fiction. The second half is tailored for the onscreen adrenaline crowd. By the end, both audiences will be disappointed with the whole film.

There is a fairly good dystopian premise: Some sort of worldwide contamination has made most of the globe uninhabitable. The survivors live in a giant underground complex that resembles a shopping mall. For their own good, their diets are carefully monitored and they all exercise. Almost everybody dresses in identical white jumpsuits, except for the staff, who opt for darker shades.

The people in white are monitored constantly. Too much contact with the opposite sex produces a guard who gives a "proximity warning." The guards are like chaperones at a dance — there's no sex allowed. The people in white don't even know what it is.

One of the white-garbed inhabitants is Lincoln Six Echo, played by experienced sci-fi actor Ewan McGregor. Lincoln manages to strike up a clandestine friendship with Jordan Two Delta, played by a wide-eyed Scarlett Johansson. They get a few warnings.

Then Lincoln starts to do something he's not supposed to — think independently. He asks why he can't ever get clothing that isn't white, and he wonders what tofu is made of. And where do all the pipes and tubes lead?

There is one place that isn't contaminated. Video monitors show what looks like a game show, with an overproduced shot of a tropical island. Sporadically, there is a lottery. The winner gets a permanent vacation on the island. Anyone with any real sense — which excludes most of the white-wearing population — would sense that something is a bit fishy.

Lincoln's curious nature also leads him into a friendship with McCord, a technician back in the service area played by a sardonic Steve Buscemi. Lincoln comes up with excuses to go into the restricted area to have some forbidden sips of McCord's stash of precontamination liquor. One day, while poking around where he shouldn't be, he sees something shocking: a winged insect that has somehow flown down from the surface. Eventually, his explorations reveal the truth behind the island vacations.

This part is well made but not very original. It looks a lot like George Lucas' THX 1138, with some of the ideas clearly derivitave of 1984 and Brave New World. Makers of an obscure 1979 low-budget film called Parts: The Clonus Horror claim that The Island rips their film off 90 different ways — they counted — and are suing for plagiarism.

Lincoln and Jordan, after some revealing plot twists, finally wind up outside the underground compound, running for their lives. This part consists of several massive, preposterous chases full of lots of destruction. The semieducated Lincoln and Jordan suddenly know how to operate futuristic vehicles,which they take through a hailstorm of gunfire with hardly a flesh wound.