BLU-RAY REVIEW: Eagle Eye, Michelle’s Take

I have two quick Blu-ray reviews for you. First up is last fall’s Eagle Eye featuring EM Favorite and “discovery,” Shia LaBeouf, solidifying himself as an A list action star. I’m still not entirely convinced this is the route he should be going with his career, yes you can’t turn down Transformers or Indian Jones, but I think he should have thought long and hard before taking this on.  Eagle Eye is an almost blatant rip-off of Will Smith’s Enemy of the State.  I didn’t like this when I saw it in the theater and on Blu-ray it somehow works for me. I have more patience for watching stupid stuff at home than I do in a theater. But this movie really requires you to shut your brain off, there’s no chemistry between LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan and the action scenes felt really generic.

Video

The video quality on this Blu-ray is of course excellent. The full 1080p really shows. I didn’t notice any artifacts in it, which is as it should be considering this is a new film. But I have to say it until I’m blu (pun intended) in the face, I HATE letter boxing. I have this beautiful 46-inch Bravia, why do I have to still put up with half my picture being cut off?  The problem is the color palette is pretty dull, all blacks and blues, nothing that makes you standup and take notice. I watched The Duchess right after this one and the difference is stark. This is one of those films that I don’t think needs to be on Blu-ray, I don’t really see much of a difference in picture quality from this and the standard definition version. And when studios charge you 50 percent more for the Blu-ray then the picture really needs make you go wow. This is a nice transfer, but the film itself is just really plain.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1, True HD Audio sounds great. My room shook doing the explosions…

Features

The menu navigation is plain as can be, but well laid out and simple to follow.

• Deleted Scenes – You get three deleted scenes and an Alternate Ending, each scene is only about a minute each. (HD)
• Asymmetrical Warfare the making of Eagle Eye (25 Mins, HD)
• Eagle Eye on Location Washington, DC (6 Mins, HD) – Since I live in DC, I really liked seeing my city on display. It’s funny that when films are shot here, we rarely here it about it, other than maybe a small item in the Post or when they shut down entire neighborhoods.  What sucks is they don’t feature anyone from the DC Film Commission in the clip.
• Is My Cell Phone Spying on ME (9 Min, HD) – A feature about big brother spying on people.
• Shall We Play A Game? (9:25, HD) – A cool featurette where Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso sits down with his mentor Director John Badham who did War Games.
• Road Trip (3 Min, HD) – About the Car Stunts.
• Gag Reel (7 Min, HD)
• Photo Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer

The features are actually more intriguing the film. Really enjoyed all of them, but again, Dreamworks did nothing special for the Blu-ray version there’s nothing here that really showcases the format, although I do appreciate getting all of them in HD.

Conclusion

Eagle Eye actually works much better in a home environment than it did for me in the theater. I’m glad I gave it another try, my issues with the film still remain, but it’s more tolerable. The Blu-ray is a nice enough edition to add to your collection – only if you can find it on sale for like $18, it’s not worth the premium Blu-ray $40 retail (Dreamworks is out of their ever loving minds, putting a $40 suggested retail price on this thing) – you can currently pick it up on Amazon for $18. If you are on the fence, pick up the DVD version, there really isn’t a real difference between the two.

Blu-ray Grades

• Movie Grade – C
• Video – B-
• Audio – A
• Menu Navigation – A
• Features – B-

Final Overall Grade B-

EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 02.03.09