Eagle Eye: Transplanted Premise + Action Cliches = Crap

I wanted something fun at the movies the other night, but unless an action movie has all the right elements, there is nothing fun about it in fact, in some ways it can be torture, because there is a point where you say, “okay that’s enough, roll the credits.”  Unfortunately for me, Eagle Eye was just such a movie.  I was somewhat intrigued by the trailer, even though it reeked a little bit of “Phone Booth” but decided to give it a chance regardless.

Upon opening up the rest of the wrapping, in addition to “Phone Booth” Eagle Eye also took reminiscent elements from The Bourne trilogy with the whole our-government-is-after-you feel, and the fact that Shia Lebeouf’s character can’t go anywhere without being photographed or having a camera on him, he even has billboards telling him what to do, and where to go.  But the biggest sin thi s film committed, was taking from one of my favourite film makers of all time Stanley Kubrick.“2001: A Space Odyssey” to be exact.  HAL we remember was representative of the fact that what we create could come to harm us, it was a brilliant inventive, apocalytic observation, and Eagle Eye decided to use this idea, and apply it to terrorism, and homeland security. I’d elaborate on this point more, but on the off chance that you’re planning to see it you can witness this abomination for yourself.

I don’t know if I can even pick any saving graces. The cast was tepid at best.  Maybe it’s me but casting Billy Bob Thornton in major positions of power is a film’s first mistake, and the fact that he was ripping off Tommy Lee Jones’ character from “The Fugitive” didn’t help either. Rosario Dawson, while beautiful and charming, didn’t have me at all convinced either that she was a government official.  It was nice to have Michelle Monaghan on screen keeping Shia company through the whole thing.  The tall beautiful brunette, is easy on the eyes for us guys  , I actually loved her in “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” and “Gone Baby Gone” but unfortunately she was no more useful in this film than Sandra Bullock was in Speed

I wish I could say that the action sequences themselves were awesome and spectacular, I mean when it’s all said and done these usually save the film,  but honestly you could see a lot of it coming, and when it did, you were whisked from side to side a lot of the time the camera left you dazed waiting for the dust to settle to see what happened.  In the end I have to say this film was disappointing, it just shows how the action genre is running out of options when it comes to originality.  I’d say skip it, wait for a night where you literally have nothing to do, and rent the DVD, but I’d say even that would be a waste of your time.

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~ by sicilianspokenword on September 30, 2008.