Shia LaBeouf has described his already extensive acting career as an ordinary kid who happened into the national spotlight. In his recent films, he ironically often finds himself playing the role of an ordinary person thrust into the middle of a national security crisis. When this happens, such as with the techno-thriller Eagle Eye, logic and rationality are stripped from view, replaced by “balls to the wall” action with nary a breather or brain cell in play.
Eagle Eye begs the question of what if a higher power were watching over our every move, using our cell phones, PDAs, computers or any electronic device connected to a network to monitor our every move 24/7? In a post-911 world where national security is a hot topic this idea isn’t hard to fathom. But taking it seriously is hard to accept when director DJ Caruso spins the idea of “big brother watching us” into a series of Hollywood clichéd improbable action sequences no mortal living in the real world would ever survive.
“Jerry Shaw, you’ve been activated.” With these words by a mysterious female voice on his cell phone after discovering a massive cache of terrorist weapons in his apartment, the underachieving life of Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) is turned upside down. Across Chicago, single mother Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) is also activated with the additional threat that her son, on a train to Washington, DC for a music concert, will be killed if she doesn’t comply. The voice, who has eyes and ears through any electronic device, pair the two in a dangerous cat and mouse chase across multiple states with the FBI, lead by Billy Bob Thorton, hot on their trail.
As in Transformers, Shia plays the unlikely and initially unwilling hero with an unrelenting determination to save the day. You know he will succeed which negates any hint questioning his allegiance or his ability to navigate the seemingly impossible task. Jerry Shaw has the indestructibility of Sam Witwicky only without the backing of giant alien robots to validate his safety.
Eagle Eye almost works as a brainless action thriller echoing countless films before it had DJ Caruso and the writers stuck to their guns. Instead, they close by pushing a serious moral message about monitoring threats against our country unbefitting the scatterbrain ride preceding it. If you’re going to put us on the edge of our seat for two hours and demand we suspend disbelief by a splintered thread after such contrivances like the voice on the phone causing a power line to break free and perfectly nail a guy on the ground, don’t cap the adrenaline fix for a false sense of self-importance.
Dreamworks offers up Eagle Eye on Blu-ray in an AVC MPEG-4 1080p encode. Heavy filtering has been applied to the entire film that tones down colors with a grayish-blue tint. This gives the film a “cold” feel with muted skin tones and few examples of eye-catching colors. Despite this filtering, the Blu-ray transfer is sharp with a light film grain and outstanding details whether the camera is in someone’s face or shooting from afar.
The 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless audio mix has been beefed up for the action sequences which make full use of the surrounds and subwoofer channels. When cars aren’t crashing into one another or Shia isn’t running through a crowed, the surrounds go completely quiet. A little more balance would have worked to round out the audio presentation, but I have nothing negative to say about the impact this mix delivers when it counts.
Dreamworks has put together a visually impressive main title animation that pops off the screen in high definition. The problem with this animation is the closing moments reveal a crucial spoiler to the film’s overarching story. Paying attention to the animation will ruin a good portion of the mystery threaded throughout the film’s first half.
Deleted Scenes (4:39, HD) – Four scenes total with a play all option, three of which are irrelevant to improving the final cut offering extended dialogue to existing scenes that worked well enough without the added footage. The last scene, an alternate ending, is unforgiving in the pursuit to force a sequel where one isn’t welcome.
Asymmetrical Warfare: The Making of Eagle Eye (25:32, HD) – This worthwhile featurette reveals Steven Spielberg conjured the idea for Eagle Eye 10 years ago but shelved it because, at the time, it would be considered pure science fiction. Rather than waste precious minutes with the camera fixed on an actor or filmmaker while they are interviewed, an ample amount of split-screen is used so behind-the-scenes footage is almost always rolling. Some of that footage includes the practical effect of crashing a crane through a set of a building’s corner. This is a true making-of piece rather than a collection of clips from the completed film.
Eagle Eye on Location: Washington, DC (5:58, HD) – The crew travels to DC to film in the streets and in the Library of Congress. Half of this comes across as an advertisement for the Library of Congress with some neat facts presented by the building’s director of communications.
Is My Cell Phone Spying on Me? (9:14, HD) – One of the more intriguing concepts in Eagle Eye, which is also featured in The Dark Knight, is the ability for a person’s cell phone to spy on them. The script was designed to closely mirror what’s possible or will be possible in the near future. It’s a scary thought that this featurette and the various interviews within it hammer home.
Shall We Play a Game? (9:22, HD) – Director DJ Caruso sits down to chat with John Badham, his mentor and director of War Games. This is a great watch as there are numerous similarities between Eagle Eye and War Games impossible to ignore. Knowing and hearing about the relationship between the two films’ directors makes the connection more natural than a modern day “rip-off” of a 1980s cult classic.
Road Trip (3:05, HD) – This appropriately short featurette glosses over the hectic on-location shoot that had the cast and crew traveling all over the country to film the myriad of diversely set scenes.
Gag Reel (7:00, HD) – These bits are more bloopers than gags with lots of line flubbing but no real laugh out loud moments.
Also included is an arrow-controlled Photo Gallery (HD) and the full Theatrical Trailer (2:35, HD). The infamous teaser trailer that debuted in front of Transformers and set Internet message boards on fire is nowhere to be found.
Eagle Eye is a fun if nonsensical thriller whose heavy stunts and action are a perfect for Blu-ray’s 1080p resolution and lossless audio. Surviving Eagle Eye without a migraine requires fending off the urge to rationalize numerous reality-bending occurrences despite the filmmakers’ attempts to create a story grounded in reality. Give it a rent for a two-hour thrill ride and short but effective extras. Remember to pay no attention to the animated main title if spoilers are wished to be avoided.
– Dan Bradley
