Eagle Eye

Strangely Unsatisfying, 29 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom


*** This review may contain spoilers ***


The raw ingredients are here, a very good story, Spielberg,a big budget and a decent cast. Somewhere along the line though the total fails to represent the sum of the parts.As a brainless blockbuster/ thriller it is competent enough. I think that the frustration is that it should have been more.

The trailer, whilst engaging, does not do justice to the plot.In summary an "innocent" man and woman, both strangers to each other, find themselves hijacked by an omniscient and omnipresent security system and are forced to do its will. Briefly it touches on some interesting points.A surveillance society is open to abuse.Remote control warfare is fallible, and how do a State's people deal with an Executive that is out of control? These cerebral issues are however subsumed by a barrage of explosions, chases, and techno mumbo jumbo which end up getting in the way.

There are some decent set piece action sequences.Yet less money spent on them, and more devoted to the nuances of the plot would have paid dividends.The almost 2 hour running time spends far too much time cuing up the next lavish "set" and too little time creating dramatic tension. "You want tension? Here's another explosion!" The leads are pretty anodyne.Shia Laboeuf, as Jerry Shaw,plays the part with the looks, and commitment, of a male model not wanting to get his hair dirty.Whilst Michelle Monaghan,as Rachel Hollman,starts off looking stunned that she is caught up in this caper, then continues looking the same throughout.In the supporting roles however there are some Stirling performances which save the picture from disaster.

In summary, there is no excuse for this film not being better than it turned out.