Echelon Conspiracy

Firstly, let me say that the reviewers giving this film one star can't possibly have seen a truly bad movie. This is by no means mind-blowing, but is a OK attempt at the spy-thriller genre. It brings in some new aspects with regards to storyline, but ultimately coming of cliché'd and slightly cheesy.

The acting as OK, but i never base a film on it's acting unless it is visibly terrible, which this isn't. However, the scripting could have been massively improved just by taking out the attempted humour, which ultimately fails and leaves the film looking childish. The storyline starts off fairly strongly, and is fairly enjoyable to watch. However, it is clearly a copy of Eagle Eye/other similar films, but with a lower budget.

It's only let down is when the conspiracy is uncovered, leading to an ending that is resolved in a very cliché manor, which is a shame, as it could have made the movie more enjoyable if new aspects were brought in, giving it a better twist. Also, some of the characters play seemingly, very confused roles, switching sides from 'good' to 'bad' with no real explanation as such.

However, if you enjoyed films like Eagle Eye, Minority Report, The Island etc etc, then definitely give this a try. It isn't quite as good, but well worth the look if you fancy an easy to watch tech-based film. 6/10

Nice, not boring, cliché-oriented, Martin Sheen & Ving Rhames among others, nicely packed "Eagle Eye" 50% clone, super computers going wild, the human brain winning again, the assumingly good guy in top position being called to some committee... Seen these before? So did I, but, as I said, for a rainy Saturday evening it's quite OK. It could've been worse, could've been a lot better. The script started really interesting, but lost something on the way. Nothing to do with the acting, just some childish solutions when there was room for more strong approach. Anyway, you can stay to the end credits, enjoying some action and "what's the next camera watching?"...

I'm only really commenting here because I get the sh!ts with dickheads who post comments about what an abysmal film this was when they only watched the first ten minutes of it.

Sure, it could have been done better, it's no Enemy of the State, after all, but as a reasonably enjoyable way of wasting 100 minutes, it does the job just fine.

So what if it's full of clichés, plot holes and technical faux-pas? Like, disguising your use of a cellphone by using an earpiece with a brilliant flashing blue light, well, it's something I probably wouldn't do, but I probably wouldn't unquestioningly do anything I was told to do by a text message from a total stranger.

Never mind, just enjoy it for what it is.

Enough said. People say that this is a rip-off of Eagle Eye. And people say that Eagle Eye is a rip-off of other movies. Echelon Conspiracy, renamed in Singapore as The Conspiracy, may be a rip-off but it does not mean that it cannot entertain. I was entertained by it. The Conspiracy has its own plot but the main idea is from Eagle Eye. It is suspenseful at times as it nears the mild twist.

The story: The pace is okay. I feel that it could be cut short on some points but anyway, the middle part caught up with the pace. The acting is a bit awkward with some of their priceless expressions. The music is quite good. This is more into a thriller than an action movie so hard-core action fans might be disappointed as it is under the action category. It had misled me into thinking that there should be a reasonable amount of action. It may look like it is a direct-to-DVD movie but it is a lot better than some direct-to-DVD movies.

Overall: It is not as bad as what a lot of people said. Definitely not the worst movie for me. At least, this tries to be fun. Some movies like recent spoof movies, you can clearly see that there is no effort taken to make the movies. People who like Eagle Eye and cannot get enough of the story, should catch this.

This film got a 5 out of me, because in the end I realized this movie is a lower budget, straight to DVD version of other movies in its genre and subject matter. The film itself seemed hastily put together with what scenes they shot to muster up a simple and digestible, even if disagreeable film.

The Pros: I'll name these first to be kind. -Story and characters make sense... more on this later. -It's international, but mostly American. They travel around the world (or so they say in the film but mostly in Prague, Moscow and somewhere in the US).

The Cons: -Too many holes and unanswered questions in the script and story line. -The main character lacks intelligent initiative. -The script itself is lacking in many areas and just assumes things without presenting them to the audience. -They give too much credit to the computer and to the characters without establishing any premise.

Straight to DVD in my opinion and not worth a watch in the theater. However the premise and subject matter is somewhat realistic with the findings of Ghostnet and other information gathering computer attacks found by Canadian and US university researchers.