‘Eagle Eye’ is the story of Jerry Shaw (Shia LeBeouf), a young, intelligent teenager who has never applied himself to anything and is scraping by in a droll existence dodging his landlady and bluffing money in poker games in the back room of his copy store job. There is also the story of Rachel Holloman (played by Michelle Monaghan), a pretty, young and bitterly divorced woman who's trying to vicariously live out her wild youth through her friends, while dedicating her only strength and passion to her young son. These two seemingly total opposites are "activated" and sent kicking and screaming through a series of dangerous events by an unknown voice on their phones, who can seemingly track them from absolutely anywhere. Jerry is forced into it because he's been framed as a terrorist, while Rachel runs the gambit to save the life of her son. Together they try to stay alive long enough to figure out what it is they are supposed to accomplish.
The major problem with the film is there is no person on the other end of the phone. It's a computer called ‘Aria’, who was designed and built by the Department of Defense and is now on the warpath to eliminate the chain of command, all the way up to the President. Aria is basically a female version of HAL from 2001. The film itself is just trying to make 2001 into modern day civilization, but really fails to deliver, especially when films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bourne Trilogy, I Robot, WarGames etc… are successful in telling the story and having a point.
The film is pretty much awful till it unravels the moment you are told everything is being run and designed by a rogue artificial intelligence system with the movie giving off a "big brother" fright tactic. The whole thing felt unrealistic - No computer system would ever be created to plan an assassination plot on the whole US Presidential Cabinet. This wasn’t anything new to cinema and the film is pretty unoriginal. At least with the Bourne trilogy for example: there was pace, well-crafted dialogue and characters, decent action set pieces - here nothing seems realistic.
Two scenes, which stick out are pretty piss-poor is the a super-computer controlling the electric cables attached to pylons so they can be used as instrument of death to an Iranian after handing over a package to Jerry and Rachel. Zzzzzz! Then after a 10-car pile up at a crossroads, where cars pile into each other from every direction at speed, the drivers get out the cars without a single scratch. C’mon! At least one member of the public must be in a serious condition from all that. The film lacks originality and believability and I wouldn’t recommend it.
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