Wednesday, 29 October 2008 01:00 | and posted in Movie Reviews
Jerry Shaw returns home from his twin brother’s funeral to find his room overflowing with the latest military hardware, material for explosives and a set of alternate identities. His mobile rings and a female voice informs him that he has 30 seconds before the FBI arrives… Framed as a terrorist, Jerry escapes FBI custody with the help of this mystery caller and is coerced, along with a single mum, into outworking a dangerous mission. At every step of the way the caller controls and tracks their actions using every day technology.
Once that first phone call is made Eagle Eye punches the accelerator and doesn’t let up until the closing credits. This is a fast paced “techno thriller” where technology is as much a leading character as Jerry or single mum Rachel. Constant cuts to a map of America made up of networked CCTV images remind us of technology’s key role in the story.
Shia LaBeouf is obviously here. It seems almost as if every Steven Spielberg movie of late (he’s Executive Producer on Eagle Eye) contains Shia LaBeouf. Fortunately, I really like him as an actor and I would say Jerry Shaw was his best performance yet. For those of you who find him, shall we say, too cocky, you’ll be pleased to hear there’s not much of this arrogance on display here. Instead he and Michelle Monaghan (as Rachel) are perfectly cast as two strangers forced to confront conflicting emotions as an unknown female voice throws them together into a complex scheme of coercion.
Thankfully Eagle Eye manages to escape the usual trappings of technology-based thrillers by choosing not to preach about privacy invasion. In fact, only one short news clip mentions privacy invasion within the entire movie and the two leading characters do not consider it at all. This is refreshing and allows the obvious danger of invasion to speak for itself. If anything, this movie is another in a long line commenting on America’s failed foreign policy.
Once the identity of the female voice is revealed the movie could easily have faltered and left the ending boring and clichéd. However, Eagle Eye really succeeds with its ending. It’s hard to explain exactly how without giving away the plot, so all I can say is that the expansion of supporting cast’s roles in the movie’s final third that leave Eagle Eye to end as well as it started.
A non-stop thrill-ride of a movie – I’d rate Eagle Eye 4 out of 5.
