Eye In The Sky is a war/thriller that stars Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman and Barkhad Abdi. It comes directed by Gavin Hood who some may know as the director of Ender’s Game (2013) or X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). It’s a story about a military exercise in Africa by the British government who have discovered a variety of terrorists there, they are able to simply bomb them using an air strike. But there are ethical things to think about, with civilians on the ground and everything, it’s a tough choice to make.
This film is mainly just about two things, first we see what it’s like spying on people with a variety of modern technology and I don’t know if we have this tech or not, but there are things like hidden cameras in flies that are used to spy in people’s homes. The second thing it’s about is, once they have the intelligence on video that someone is planning a terrorist attack, can they stop them through the use of an airstrike before the terrorist is able to do what they are going to do.
We see a variety of discussions by people in the military, some politicians, some government representatives and a lot of these people seem to love to pass responsibility to someone else in the process. It’s all very interesting and while the movie as I’ve described so far may not seem that interesting, it actually is, it’s fairly thought provoking and it’s not just about bombing or killing anyone that’s a threat like in London Has Fallen, this film has a lot more dialogue and drama to it.
The actors in this are a big plus, we get Helen Mirren commanding the strike unit, we have Alan Rickman playing a Lt. General and we have Barkhad Abdi running around on the ground in person doing some actual spying (the rest are safe at home watching a live stream from the fly camera and are in no danger). This group of actors are all great and I wasn’t aware that Alan Rickman was in this, but I do know he recently passed away so him being in the film was quite the treat, I’m sure his fans will enjoy his performance here, which was excellent.
This movie is probably going to be a hard sell because it’s got a lot of political messages, things about terrorism and everything that comes with that, but it’s much better when compared to something like London Has Fallen and I would highly recommend going in to see this over that film any day of the week because Eye In The Sky is certainly the better film.
I’m happy to recommend seeing Eye In The Sky at the cinemas, I found the film to be quite thought provoking and made me think about the process that goes into the decision that leads to an air strike on a potentially dangerous group of people. While the subject matter isn’t for everyone and some may be sick of these films, this is one of the better ones I have seen in this area for a long while. It’s got Alan Rickman and it’s one of his last films that will ever be released so that is also a plus if you’re a fan of his.
