I went to see /Eagle Eye/ without knowing anything about it--the most I had learned was that it had
Shia LaBeouf from the
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The opening scenes of the film show the male lead, Jerry Shaw, as confident and talented, yet under-performing in society's view. When he's called home to attend the military funeral of his high-achieving brother, flashes of
Bad Company (2002 film) came to mind.
Fortunately, it would turn out, that was the only similarity between the two films. Just as the following scene, where Jerry receiving a mysterious call on this phone telling him that federal agents are about to arrest him (and him subsequently ignoring the call and being detained in a room with a slow-speaking federal agent who spends the remainder of the film chasing him) is the extent to which this film reminds one directly of
The Matrix. Other films, however, are much more thoroughly represented--to the point where when the illogically designed robotic eye appeared, you thought it was going to start singing
Daisy Bell.
Despite its lack of original contributions, the film is not too boring to watch, and if you haven't seen any of the movies it borrows--heavily--from, you might just find parts interesting. On the plus side, there's no twenty-minute psychedelic trip at the end.