I love this movie the way I love Superman Returns: in spite of its flaws.
To be frank, this movie completely surprised me. I think I’m burned out on movies. I always expect them to be stupid. Usually they are, but not this time. Eagle Eye was just pure awesomeness. It was action packed, emotional without being unbelievable, and I really cared about the characters – even the ones that weren’t Shia LaBeouf. It was only vaguely political and didn’t have an agenda as far as I could tell, and reason behind the story was not, in my opinion at least, lame.
Spoilers ahead now.
The fact that I guessed who or what was making all the phone calls and controlling everything pretty early on didn’t make the movie unenjoyable at all. Obviously it was a computer, that was the only explanation there could be. Some random Julianne Moore character couldn’t be everywhere at once controlling traffic lights and random power lines in the middle of nowhere. I had moments where I thought of I, Robot, but only because that was another movie where a robot took over the world. I don’t really remember anything about that movie though, so I can’t make an accurate comparison. In both cases the plot had to do with the computer taking things too literally and deciding to take things into their own “hands.” I liked the way Eagle Eye did it because even though I knew it had to be a robot, I didn’t know how it had decided to take over. I thought the use of the Constitution was pretty clever. That last sentence makes me sound stupid unless you’ve seen the movie. Oh well.
Something else I was surprised by was how little strong language there was. I was assuming that since it was the same director and lead actor from Disturbia, which had tons of language, this would be the same way. I’m not saying I’m a wuss who can’t handle some bad words in a movie, but I don’t think it’s always necessary, and in Disturbia it was a little over the top for me, even given the circumstances of the movie (neighbor trying to kill people, etc.). Eagle Eye had some language but it was nothing extreme, and that was something I really appreciated about it. It still isn’t family friendly, but when you don’t have to deal with the F bomb being dropped every other sentence, it’s easier to get into the story.
Now we’re going to get to the one thing I didn’t like about this movie: the ending. It felt cheap to me. The story is chugging along, it’s this big culmination in the House chamber – Jerry’s running in in his policeman outfit, Rachel’s desperately trying to get her son out of there so he doesn’t blow up, the computer’s about to kill everyone… and then Jerry gets shot like three times in the chest when he stops the kid’s band from playing the last note that would set off the bomb that would kill the entire chain of command. The moment when Jerry stood on the table and started shooting his gun in the air, when I saw the look on his face which basically said “I know I’m going to die” – that was when I decided I loved this movie. I was completely surprised he got shot, and I thought for sure he was going to die. When he was lying on the floor and they showed that closeup of his face and his eyes closed? Okay, that was a death. And as much as I completely adore Shia LaBeouf, I genuinely think they should have killed him off. It would have shown the growth of his character over the course of the movie, that at some point Jerry started believing in something bigger than himself, that he wanted to finish what his dead twin brother started because he knew what was at stake. His sacrifice would have meant more if he had died. You know, in the movie. Obviously if this was a real and someone got shot doing what Jerry did at the end, it would be a really good thing if he lived. I’m just talking about what makes a good story, and personally, Eagle Eye would have packed a lot more punch if they’d killed off the hero in the end.
But he magically survived somehow. The ending felt to me like they sent the final cut off to the studio and the studio was like “this movie isn’t going to make enough money if Shia LaBeouf dies in the end. You have to change it so he lives.” So they were like, fine, and made that weird ending where Jerry shows up at Rachel’s house for her son’s birthday and they have a “moment.” Which came out of nowhere by the way because this movie wasn’t romantic at all. But whatever. I hope that when the DVD comes out there’s an alternate ending where he actually dies. Because the one in the movie did not seem real at all.
Even with the hackneyed ending, the movie was still really fantastic. Bravo, DJ Caruso and Shia LaBeouf. Here’s hoping Y: The Last Man will be even better.
Posted by sarahactually 
Posted by sarahactually 
Posted by sarahactually 
