Eagle Eye
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Directed by: D.J. Caruso
Starring:
Shia LeBeouf - Jerry Shaw
Michelle Monaghan - Rachel Holloman
Rosario Dawson - Zoe Perez
Michael Chiklis - Defense Secretary Callister
Billy Bob Thorton - Agent Thomas Morgan
Suspension of disbelief is a pre-requisite for enjoying fiction. There is no man dressed as a bat fighting crime, no bureau of paranormal research and defense, and no school for witchcraft and wizardry (no matter how many times we longingly look outside our windows waiting for that owl to arrive). We suspend our disbelief so fiction can work its magic and take us into a new, exciting world if only for a brief period of time. However, that suspension only stretches so far and only in so many directions. With Eagle Eye, the bounds of what we know and believe to be government surveillance and networking capabilities is enough to know that the world these characters inhabit is so ludicrous that a giant dragon may as well swoop in and save the day.
As Jerry Shaw, Shia LeBeouf once again plays the young everyman thrust into an extraordinary situation when he discovers that he’s been set up as basically a gift-wrapped package for Homeland Security by planting every piece of evidence possible in his apartment short of an autographed poster of Osama Bin Laden. After making a daring escape, he's joined by Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), a young mother who is now at the mercy of her son’s mysterious captor who wants her to perform random tasks.
It turns out that both Jerry and Rachel are the pawns of Eagle Eye, a super-computer that has become sentient and decided that extreme measures must be taken for the security of the state. Eagle Eye is like GLaDOS from Portal but really boring and apparently not that bright. She comes up with the most convoluted plan imaginable in order to achieve a simple act of terrorism. She can control all traffic lights, see through every security camera, derail every train, and even route baggage to different locations (which is why your suitcase ended up in Bermuda instead of Munsie). But darn it all, she doesn't have the launch codes to a single weapon! She can eject a fighter jet pilot out of his seat; cannot fire the missile. The missile is apparently not automated but manually thrown by extremely strong and accurate goblins*.
I can accept dumb movies but there's a general rule: the more idiotic your film, the less seriously you have to take yourself. Unfortunately, Eagle Eye has something to say and apparently after having your brain weakened for the last one-hundred and twenty minutes, it's going to say it as simply as possible: surveillance bad, freedom good. It's basically Benjamin Franklin's famous dictum "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" expanded to a two hour action film.
And to its credit, it's a well-made film. If he gets a good script, I'm confident that director D.J. Caruso can make a solid adaptation of his next project, Y: The Last Man. The action scenes in this film are absolutely insane, with car crashes made all the more effective by the fact that the chase cars are apparently made of tin-foil. All the performances are fine, with Billy Bob Thorton being the best of the bunch and the only one who gets to have a little fun in the film. However, there’s not enough Michael Chiklis. You can never get enough Chiklis.
Every person has their own measure of how dumb a film can be and the threshold for when that stupidity becomes enjoyable. For me, I could never start having fun because the film wouldn't let me. It's too busy trying to thrill me with an implausible scenario that's reach exceeds its grasp.
*Just trying to fill in the plot-hole. You're welcome.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
6.25.08