ScreenWize

Exhilarating and ludicrous, Eagle Eye takes conspiracy theory on an extreme cyber-terrorism ride, packing the screen with non-stop smash and grab action as the clock ticks down on the end of American liberty as we know it. This is the kind of high concept, big budget cinema that Hollywood does best - a handful of likeable and uncomplicated characters on a plot driven mission to save the world. Not much is new, not much is left unexplained, but there’s enough to sit back and enjoy as the set pieces unfold and the carnage mounts up.

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachael Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) are just two ordinary citizens. He works in a photocopying store and she’s a single mum. Their lives are changed irrevocably when they receive a series of phone calls from an unknown woman - also able to control traffic systems, government computers and the many closed-circuit television cameras that have become part of our surveillance orientated society. Jerry and Rachael are forced to act. Like mad puppets they tear across the country, following orders, trying to resist the unknown force, but powerless against its complete technological pervasiveness. It seems that everything is connected but nothing adds up. Following hard in their wake - and also trying to make sense of things - is Agent Tom Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) and Air Force security operative Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson). As everyone gets catapulted towards the climax, and the moment when the forces of malevolence are revealed, the film’s rather lamely explored political message surfaces. Where do we draw the line between preventing terrorism and collecting intelligence information? Mmm, let me think. Somewhere in the middle, perhaps?

Although this is no character piece, Shia LaBeoff makes another impressive appearance as the reluctant action hero, and Billy Bob Thornton (who is given more time to linger in his scenes) stand outs with some choice lines of a frustrated man always just too late to get his quarry. Director D.J Caruso, who also worked with LaBeouf on Disturbia, pulls off a succession of stunning chase sequences and finds an endless series of intriguing places where things can get blown up, demolished and crushed. Superimposed on top of all this is an impressive array of computer generated graphic design tricks that are used to demonstrate the supposed power and reach of state-of-the art surveillance technology. But strip away these high powered special effects, and there’s really not much left in the film. It’s a linear Fugitive-type story that has to withhold the identity of the forces of evil for as long as possible, leaving an overstretched second act and a predictable last.

SW

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon