The film Eagle Eye advertised itself as an action/adventure film with an aspect of government intrigue ("Big Brother is watching"). While the film definitely delivers in the action department, there really isn't much else to it.The basic plot of the film centers on two ordinary people who are suddenly "activated" as terrorists and must flee for there lives while only taking messages from all the electronic devices around them (cell phones, billboards, streaming text lines, LED signs, etc.). As they continue to flee, they eventually figure out what is happening to them and begin hatching a plan to stop it.The reason why this movie fails, though, is that is doesn't focuses on the dramatic elements that are actually interesting. Without giving any spoilers, the film would have been much better served focusing on two areas: 1. The technology behind why the two U.S. citizens are "activated" in the first place; and 2. The relationship between the two lead characters played by Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan.Instead, however, this film is little more than one pulse-pounding action sequence after another with just enough (but much too little) exposition to move the plot forward to the next crazy chase scene. Plus, the focus of the film seemed to be on the fact that the two citizens can be communicated with or found by any electronic device. However, it covered much of the same territory that Will Smith and Gene Hackman did in Enemy of the State a decade ago. There wasn't enough new material to really hook me into this plot thread.Thus, if you a huge fan of non-stop action in films, you will love this film. If you need some character and plot development to keep your interest, though, then skip this movie, as you will just be disappointed.

Told that they have been "activated" by a mysterious female voice on the phone, two strangers find themselves on the run from the authorities, aided and abetted by the voice who seems to be able to control all machinery and electronic devices at will. Powered by such an intriguing premise, the first half of 'Eagle Eye' is utterly encapsulating. Not only are the elusive true motives of the voice subject for thought, so is the extent of her ability to control electronics and the question of whether others are involved. A surprise science fiction twist around halfway in, however, spins the material in a new direction and while the ideas are still interesting, the second section owes so much to earlier films like 'WarGames' and 'I, Robot' that it is sometimes hard to avoid it feeling like a pale imitation. The two halves of the film are not, however, quite as distinctive as they might sound. Throughout there is a running agenda of government surveillance and over-reliance on technology and while the film plays more on fears about this (and less the potential of it), it is food for thought all the same. Regardless of what one thinks of the themes and ideas though, 'Eagle Eye' is undeniably thrilling ride. Whereas director D.J. Caruso's previous film, 'Disturbia', was essentially an updating of 'Rear Window', this effort is similarly molded on Hitchcockian wrong man thrillers. The violence is a lot more extreme, but the dynamic remains the same with the everyman protagonists eventually proving themselves capable of everything they are mistaken as trying to do.

Incompetent as a thriller, mildly interesting as a political allegory, D. J. Caruso's "Eagle Eye" revolves around ARIIA, a supercomputer designed by the US military. Deciding that the executive branch of the US Government is a threat to national security, and justifying its actions based on Section 216 of the Patriot Act, which allows the circumventing of chains of command, ARIIA begins assassinating government officials.Countless real-life intelligence reports have concluded that the "defence policies" of the United States are in fact the chief causes of blowback, violence, terrorism and threats to US citizens. ARIIA's "revolutionary" acts on behalf of "we the people" are therefore never fully condemned by Caruso. Indeed, ARIIA at one point cites the Declaration of Independence ("whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"). This is fairly novel for a mainstream thriller."Is it not also permissible to kill a president, Member of Parliament, bureaucrat, or police officer from a democratic regime, if killing is necessary to stop them from harming the innocent?" philosopher Andrew Altman, author of "Targeted Killings: Law and Morality in an Asymmetrical World", wonders. To many, the answer would be no. Killing a Hitler or Gestapo agent to stop the murdering of innocent people is typically deemed permissible. But knocking off a US president in order to stop, say, an invasion of the Philippines or the funding of terrorist cells, is a no-no. The assumption is that only non-violent resistance to these injustices is permissible, and that democratic government agents enjoy special immunity against being killed in self-defence or the defence of others. These democracies, meanwhile, always operate under the assumption that their own violence is permissible. In "Eagle Eye", ARIIA doesn't abide by these hypocrisies, though the film ultimately betrays its convictions. It ends, after-all, with its heroes saving the President of the United States – who in real life is always the chieftain of extralegal executions – from ARIIA's targeted assassinations. Coups, regime changes and murder are wrong, "Eagle Eye" admits, though mostly when directed at first world white dudes."Eagle Eye" was released in 2008, five years before the lid was blown on a global spy-network run primarily by the United States' National Security Agency. Designed for global surveillance, this ARIIA-resembling network intercepts mountains of data, recording most global internet and telecommunications traffic, as well as international traffic flowing via undersea fibre optic cables. Email records, telephone conversations, shopping records, medical records, banking records, internet records, text messages, digital profiles...virtually everything with a digital or electromagnetic footprint is automatically gobbled up by this network. Capable of simultaneously recording and storing every phone-call occurring within entire continents, this network extends across the planet, gathering data and meta-data on millions of ordinary people around the world. It also tracks cellphone locations, can hack cellphone conversations, and is capable of hacking its way into most encrypted consumer products. Such data mining occurs thanks to NSA alliances with major companies (Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Youtube, AOL, Skype etc) and major countries (Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Israel). The NSA also spies on and collects data stored within the data centres of major corporations, giving it access to the daily habits, thoughts, words and actions of billions. Currently this spy-network has numerous ancillary branches (PRISM, Tempora, Stellar Wind, Dishfire, MUSCULAR, Project 6, Stateroom, ECHELON, CO-TRAVELER), most of which have since changed their names.The NSA has defended its networks, stating that it "stops terrorists", but revelation after revelation has shown that they have no impact on terrorism, and are primarily used to spy on civilians, political activists, diplomats, commercial entities, environmental groups, corporations and global policy makers. The NSA, in short, is in the business of economic espionage, protecting Western mega-corporate, mega-trade and mega-banking interests. "The police are the right arm of corporate power," Jack London wrote in 1902; the NSA now functions the same way. Consider, for example, project OLYMPIA, which exclusively spies on Brazil's ministry of mining and energy. And even when NSA intel is used in "warzones" to kill "terrorists" ("We kill people based on meta-data." - Michael Hayden, NSA director), such extra-legal killings are "validated" via "inference" not "proof". The point? "Eagle Eye's" ARIIA is already a reality. Minus, of course, ARIIA's conflicted sense of morality.6/10 – "Eagle Eye" was loosely based on Isaac Asimov's "All the Troubles of the World".

Why can't people write good scripts anymore? In watching this (I was sorry I was watching it) all I could think is this all these people can come up with - completely unbelievable car chases, plot that makes absolutely no sense, technology uses that make absolutely no sense and I could go on. Anyway I won't be wasting my time actually watching this piece of crap all the way through. Life is too short for that. Hollywood - write a good script and bring us something that is believable. If I want fantasy I will rent Shrek. At least it had a good script.