D
What would happen if the government could watch every move, hear every conversation and monitor the lives of each and every citizen? Look no further; this Orwellian pickle is the foundation for D.J. Caruso's thriller, Eagle Eye.
The problem, however, is that Eagle Eye manages its message with the subtlety of a Michael Bay movie. Trying to be clever and thought provoking, it quickly turns into an over-the-top farce, a simple action movie with very little substance.
The film revolves around Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), a reluctant protagonist who gets dragged into a mysterious conspiracy.
After the death of his brother, Shaw finds his apartment filled to the brim with weapons and his bank account stocked with an absurd amount of money. He then receives a phone call that drags him, along with Rachel Hollomann (Michelle Monaghan, Made of Honor), into a ridiculous storyline as the FBI pursues the two strangers.
LaBeouf plays the same character he did in his last four films, failing to bring anything new to the semi-outcast that he embodied in Transformers and Crystal Skull. To LaBeouf's credit, this time he's bulked up a bit with a shot of testosterone and a smattering of facial scruff thrown in for good measure.
Unfortunately, it's hard to buy LaBeouf as an action hero, let alone the most wanted fugitive in the country. The actor's failure to be original detaches from the serious plot the movie tries to build, while Monaghan is simply boring in her role as a mother trying to save her son.
Her mind-numbing performance further detaches the audience from the film; her character is so lacking that it's next to impossible to sympathize with her.
The film is rounded with two FBI agents, Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton, The Informers) and Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson, Death Proof), along with a defense secretary played by a wasted Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer).
Thornton, in the most basic of terms, is a walking plot device; the cliched authority figure whose purpose in the film is to act as an obstacle the protagonist must jump.
Dawson fulfills the second half of that cliche, her only purpose to remind the audience that there is a sub-plot. Any clues failed to be picked up by Shaw and Hollomann seem to fall effortlessly into her lap due to some unexplained, uncanny ability she possesses.
That being said, what dooms Eagle Eye is not the actors, but rather the implausibility of the story and the ridiculous direction it takes. A central factor to any thriller is the element of mystery, and this film fails at delivering any semblance of a well-composed mystery.
While the film seeks to comment on national security, all sense of plausibility gets thrown out the window, courtesy of its unrealistically grandiose nature.
In Eagle Eye's world, the government is able to hear anything a person says by tapping into their cell phones, and has the ability to hack into anything - Live Free or Die Hard anyone?
By dealing with serious, conspiratorial themes in an immature and convoluted manner, the film does not succeed in drawing the audience into any suspension of disbelief, losing most of its credibility once the film reaches its idiotic climax.
Eagle Eye wants to be smart and clever but unfortunately it is neither. It is nothing more than a foolish action movie with gratuitous product placement that fails to present any of its themes in a meaningful manner.
