Is "Big Brother" watching you? Do you have control over your own destiny? Eagle Eye asks these questions while taking us on an action-packed journey into cyber-terrorism.
It all starts when Jerry Shaw's (Shia Labeouf) brother dies in a car accident. All of a sudden Jerry finds himself with three quarters of a million dollars in his bank account and he returns home to his apartment to discover it stacked high with weapons and explosives. A poster with the word surveillance is stuck prominently on one wall. Jerry then receives a phone call from a mysterious woman who says, "You've been activated," and then proceeds to give him instructions on how to get out of the situation alive... which includes a stunning escape from the FBI. Meanwhile, single mother Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) is out on the town with some friends when she too receives a call from the same mysterious woman. She is threatened with the death of her son if she does not comply with the instructions she is given.
Jerry and Rachel are pushed into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, with the technology of everyday life—such as mobile phones, security cameras, satellite imaging—being used to track their every move. But this mysterious caller is not the only person they need to worry about. They are now the country's most-wanted fugitives and the FBI is hot on their heels. In this battle for survival, Jerry and Rachel must work together in order to discover what is really happening—and more importantly, why?
Now, I'm sure most people want to find out the answers to this themselves, so I'll try not to give too much away. But I will say that you do have to suspend your disbelief a bit if you really want to enjoy this film. Otherwise you may find yourself sitting in the cinema saying, "Oh, come on, that can't happen!"... or something to that effect.
I think the reason movies such as Eagle Eye don't really make me uncomfortable is because I'm perfectly aware that there's really no such thing as privacy any more anyway. We're all perfectly happy to make not only our personal information known so we can have greater convenience online, through credit cards that we just have to tap, and with smart phones and so on, but we're also perfectly happy to make our preferences known as well so companies can more accurately cater to our desires. The fact is we're only concerned about an "invasion of privacy" when it's something that might stop us from doing what we want or might inconvenience our lifestyle.
Of course we have the exact same issues with God. We're perfectly happy to let him monitor our lives, or completely ignore the fact that he's monitoring our lives, just so long as he doesn't interfere with our lives. The moment his omniscience starts to have any sort of influence on how we live, that's when we become indignant and frustrated over a God who just won't leave us a alone and "demands" that we follow his own, arbitrary moral code. That's when we start complaining about a controlling, capricious God.
Well, let me again point out that this issue of surveillance, monitoring, and omniscience really depends on something very important: relationship. When you have a good relationship with God, you don't really have anything to worry about when it comes to the fact that he knows and sees everything you do. When you know that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the price for your sins and rose from the dead to give you new life, you no longer feel inconvenienced or intimidated by God's surveillance of your life because God's view of you is filtered through the righteousness and holiness of Christ. You now live under grace and forgiveness, and more than that, because of your loving relationship with God, you're not that concerned about him controlling your life because you want to live it to please and honor him anyway... just as you behave for anyone you like or love.
In the same way, if you have a good relationship with the government, if you're a good citizen, just what do we really have to fear from government surveillance, especially considering they aren't getting any information we haven't already shared with wireless companies, credit card companies, online stores, and through the web with MySpace and Youtube? This issue of privacy versus surveillance for national security isn't really an issue; it's one we've already decided with our own high-tech lifestyles.
Okay, so back to the movie. Eagle Eye is certainly a serviceable espionage, action thriller... up to a certain point.
Eagle Eye contains some great action sequences, car chases ,and explosions that really make it one to see on the big screen. All the performances are credible, though there isn't a whole lot of character development—with the exception of Jerry Shaw, who gets most of the screen time in the early part of the film. And once the film's plot kicks into gear and the action gets going, the filmmakers do well to build a lot of suspense, keeping the audience interested and often on the edge of their seats.
Now the thing that struck me while watching this film, as Jerry and Rachel are being controlled by an external source (the mysterious woman), is that this is how so many people in society view God. They see Him as a god who wants to control the way we live, watching our every move and threatening our eternal souls if we don't follow his commands. It is a bleak picture of us having no say in what path we choose to take in life.
But it is a false picture. The truth is that God is not interested in controlling every aspect of our life; He just wants to be involved. He wants to be there with us when we set out on our journey. Sure, He has guidelines of how to live a life pleasing to Him, but we make our own choices. The fact is though, when we do let God enter our lives, when we do have a relationship with Him and involve Him in our journey, more often than not our choices will be pleasing to Him.
Anyway, back to the question I posed at the start: "'Do we have control over our own destiny?" While the film suggests for a while that we don't (as Jerry and Rachel feel they have no choice but to follow every command), when they realise what's actually happening they discover that they do, in fact, have a choice. And in the end it comes down to Jerry. He takes hold of his own destiny and makes his decision.
All in all. Eagle Eye didn't offer enough to keep me entertained. All it did was remind me of the fact that the movies it so liberally borrowed from were far superior and much more entertaining. Yes, there are a few entertaining chase sequences and a couple emotional moments, but the rest of Eagle Eye is so contrived, so unoriginal, and just all-around mediocre that even though this movie wants to convince you that there's somebody always watching, that person watching shouldn't be you... at least for this movie
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