Blog

BY MAGGIE SCOTT

Since it appears that computers are well on their way to taking over our lives when it comes to work and play, it’s not too far-fetched to assume that with some nefarious refinements they could also take over the world.

While the idea of a rogue computer is, by now, a fairly old one at the movies (think HAL in 2001), it’s not much of a thrilling shock to feature one in the thriller, “Eagle Eye.” What is shocking is how mind-numbingly preposterous the capabilities of ARIA, a top-secret government super-computer, turn out to be as it manipulates the actions of virtual kidnap victims,

Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan). In a dominatrix-style voice, the computer orders Jerry, the “less-talented and ambitious” twin brother of a slain Air Force officer, into an escalating series of disorienting situations that start after Jerry is hauled in for questioning about thousands of dollars from Singapore in his account and several hundred pounds of ammonium nitrate in his apartment.

Escaping from Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton), an FBI agent with the Defense Department’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Jerry is literally thrown into the company of Rachel, whose son is being threatened by ARIA if she does not cooperate. Whether it’s in the chaos of Chicago or the desolation of an Illinois farm field, Rachel and Jerry are not out of the lethal reach of ARIA; who, it is increasingly, if bizarrely obvious, has control over everything connected to a computer grid with the capabilities of sending or receiving electronic signals.

ARIA needs Jerry to re-activate a national defense program that an Air Force OSI officer (Rosario Dawson) discovers Jerry’s brother Ethan had knowledge of. But, why does ARIA need Rachel and her innocent son, Sam, a member of his school band that has been diverted from a concert at the Kennedy Center to play at the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill?

Rachel and Jerry finally get some answers from the defiant computer (who wants Jerry, an “enemy of the state” eliminated) and those involved in Eagle Eye and its ultimate weapon, Operation Guillotine, to “provide for the common defense,” Now, they are in a race against time and the moment when Sam hits the high note in the Star Spangled Banner on his trumpet, to literally bring down the House.

There is no point in grousing about how far-fetched this set up is; and how ridiculously heavy-handed the premise is at warning us about how easily computers can and are being used to violate our civil rights, damage our reputations and obliterate our identities. It’s best to click off the analytical portion of your brain and boot up your suspension of disbelief for the grudgingly admirable edge-of-your-seat ride. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence and for language.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us