Eagle Eye (2008) Movie Review

Eagle Eye is an annoying and preposterous thriller that gets worse as it moves forward at rocket speed. The film is also very loud and edited in such a way that trying to connect the film’s plot holes or dots will also give you a headache. This film was a idea thought of by its executive producer Steven Spielberg, perhaps it would have been more fresh if it was made during the 80’s, instead of present day with all the numerous technological elements.

At first we meet Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf), who is a college dropout that works part-time as a copy boy. At an ATM he surprisingly notices that he has $750,000 in his bank account, even though he is truly broke. Next, he arrives at his apartment to notice that it is full of military weapons and bomb making devices. Jerry’s phone then rings, where a mysterious woman’s voice (unaccredited Julianne Moore) tells him that the FBI will arrive at his door in 30 seconds. Confused, Jerry hesitates and sure enough the FBI breaks down the door and arrests him. In his questioning with FBI agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton), Jerry’s pleas that he was setup, while Morgan tells him he thinks he is a terrorist. While getting his one phone call, the voice comes back on and Jerry learns that everything electronic is being controlled by this voice as it begins barking orders at him to complete a certain task.

Jerry gets paired up with Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), who was “activated” by the voice as well to jump through obstacles, or the train her young son is traveling on will be derailed. The two join forces and are literally sent a wild goose chase all over the place, with the voice giving them orders while offering assistance by controlling everything electronically. The film never lets off the pedal as Jerry and Rachel move to complete their tasks, but to also figure what exactly is going on.

Eagle Eye reunites Shia LaBeouf with his Disturbia director D.J. Caruso, who blows up everything in is his way and uses shaky camera movements a plenty. Caruso does not let this film slow down at all, which is its strength as a popcorn movie, but also does not let the audience catch their breath, or time to figure out what is actually going on. After rethinking through each sequence and plot point it is obvious that the film’s four writers (Dan McDermott, John Glenn, Travis Adam Wright and Hillary Seitz) borrowed prominently from other films that were better executed like I, Robot, 2001, and Enemy of the State. It is also evident that the scenes were just jumbled together to fill in blanks and add characters. An example is the arrival of all the weapons to Jerry’s apartment to bring in the FBI, why didn’t the voice just threaten him and barks as she did to Rachel. There is also a sequence were Jerry and Rachel had to hold up an armor truck and steal a case that contain something important to their task. Audience members will begin shaking their heads once they learn what is in the case. The entire secret or twist of the film as to the voice is also something that has been seen before. Caruso tries to keep pounding on the action and fast pace energy to cloak over all the film’s problems and stupidity.

LaBeouf seems to be Spielberg’s go to guy, but he merely just looks shocked and runs a lot in the film. He surely does have talent, but it is hard to hail him as the next action hero. Michelle Monaghan carries some emotion throughout the film, but she does not have much to work with as the mom-on-the-run as Rachel. Billy Bob Thornton steals a few scenes in the Tommy Lee Jones' The Fugitive role, and Rosario Dawson hardly makes an impression as an Air Force investigator named Perez. It is nice to see Michael Chilkis playing a character other than Ben Grimm or a corrupt cop as the Secretary of Defense in the film.

Eagle Eye is a non-stop action thriller that reflects to be smart, but it is far from it. This film make work as a guilty pleasure or a popcorn film for some movie goers, but it just tries to be so serious, and it really nothing but a stupid and pointless film.