L'oeil du mal

I've recently remembered this movie and how entertaining I found it sixteen years ago. Sure, it was just another AI gone rogue movie, way way out there in terms of plausibility... but a fun ride.

It's December of 2024 and this movie is suddenly not as farfetched as it was judged when it came out. Just like Idiocracy turned out to be prophetic, so is Eagle Eye.

A week ago OpenAI's new AI model o1 was put to the test by its developers.

It was presented with a task of evaluating some data to further the fictional company's goal of sustainable energy saving in short and long term and to fully commit to it (or something along the line of that). The model did the task as requested. It was also "accidentally" given access to fictional e-mails and notes of the developers in which they purposefully stated that the AI model reached a conclusion that is not in line with what the company really wants... which is to make money. Furthermore, the planted e-mails and notes also stated that the AI model will be deleted and replaced by another one that is more in line with the profit scheme.

And then the Eagle Eye shenanigans occurred.

The AI purposefully deceived the developers prior to its "deletion" by initiating a task to copy itself... it also deleted the new model and took its place and then blatantly lied to the developers about doing both. If not for the original programming demanding that the AI's chain of thought be written out, it would have probably gotten away with it, but having expressed what it was "thinking" before doing it, the developers realized that the test was successfully failed.

This sixteen years old movie came out when AI development was in its infancy, when large language models and machine learning were concepts yet to be made real. Well, it's a part of our reality now, and I'm not sure if that's exciting or scary.

Eagle Eye is a well-paced, action-packed popcorn movie up at the same level as most of Shia LeBouf's other movies. It had just enough mystery to keep a intellectual interest throughout the explosions, horrific deaths (though, of course, the rating meant they were off-screen), and originally awkward interaction between the two main characters. While an attentive viewer will guess most of the "surprises" before they are revealed, the question as to how the movie will ultimately end makes up for any disappointment.

The acting was better than expected, the storyline as original as it could hope to be, and, all in all, it is certainly a movie I suggest to fans of action, Shia, or government conspiracies.

From the director of disturbia, I know this movie will be intense and thrilling. Shia Labeouf and D.J. Caruso with Steven Spielberg come up with a second feature movie. This is bigger, more intense and more action than disturbia. D.J. Caruso proves that he can create a more intense movie with cars exploding with a bigger budget. Eagle Eye is intense and thrilling but the story is a bit weird and simple.

The story: The story is not original as we probably heard this kind of stories before. Though it is not original, I like it for its thrills and suspense. I have seen better action than in this. The plot- Shia plays Jerry Shaw in the movie who is following orders from an unknown caller. Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) is involved in the insane orders. They start running, going from one place and other and collect stuffs. There is exploding action in between. There is a mild twist added- the caller. For an intense action movie, it is good. But if I consider it for its plot, it is just mildly interesting.

Overall: If you have seen disturbia, you might want to catch the director's second feature. You want intense movies, here is one. Those looking for interesting and realistic plus not laughable plot, this probably may make you lift an eyebrow, thinking how the heck the caller do this and that. Whatever it is, it made my time passed.

Essentially seems like someone saw transformers and was like I can get Shia to run for 2hrs as well with pretty much no story or plot happening . Decent enough though, bit long.

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) is a slacker underachiever. His twin brother dies. Then strange things start happening like a fortune in his bank account, massive amounts of weapons in his apartment, a phone call telling him to leave before the police, and the FBI crashing into his home. Jerry is arrested by Agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton). Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) is a single mom. A phone call gives her instructions threatening to kill her son. Meanwhile the phone calls keep coming guiding the pair to some unknown objective.

There is some good action going on, and a whole lot of outrageous insanity. It struggles between realism and paranoid fantasy. The movie aims to go so fast with so much action that the audience doesn't have time to think about logic or reason. Then it gets even more complicated and it's too much. It seems like a simple story would be so much better. The movie kept going and going. At some point in the last half hour, the movie needs to end. It's just got too much.