Eye In The Sky – Review (2016)

About – A modern warfare thriller, seeing through military eyes to capture terrorists in Kenya. Until a little girl gets herself in the kill zone, triggering an international halt.

Eye in the Sky isn’t your usual war, action, thriller, if you were expecting it to be action packed and full of explosions this isn’t the film you were looking for. It more goes into depth of the different areas of the government and military areas that are involved in a drone strike. This is a great way of showing the true struggles that the military have to go through on a daily basis. It was also refreshing to see that it wasn’t the usual war film including America and Britain fighting in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Eye in the Sky was based in Kenya. The war was the same as any other war film regarding who they were trying to capture. But basing it in different surroundings was more intriguing to watch. The different areas that you see in Eye in the sky is England, America, and Kenya, which is much more appealing than seeing troops on the ground going through different situations like a regular war film.

The introduction was spectacular. There was a terrorist attack in a supermarket and a university back in April 2015 killing 147 children, women and men. Eye in the Sky, has a flashback to this event showing footage that was captured by the media and civilians. By showing raw footage of the terrorists with guns and shouting at each other with civilians crying in the background, this was a sensitive issue and still is in Kenya, but from a film perspective this was a thriller opening. That reminds us of what happened back in 2015. Bringing us up to date of where the military are to the captures of terrorists in Kenya.

Colonel Katherine Powell was played by Helen Mirren, who was based in England. Katherine is the sort of character that wants to get the job done. There is certain issues that other characters won’t take upon incase there will be blood on their hands but Katherine doesn’t care, due to her trying to capture these terrorists for over 6 years and keeping a close eye on them. Helen Mirren’s performance can only be described as heart racing and shocking, by what she is capable of and what she will do to get the job done. Helen really makes this film that more tense, the thrill that comes from her presence as a character is amazing and Helen really knows how to bring that to screen. Every time Helen and her character comes on-screen you know something outrageous will be said or done just to capture these terrorists no matter of the outcome.

Aaron Paul performs as Steve Watts, who is the pilot for the drone. His role is to keep target of the terrorists and if necessary to deploy a missile.  You only see Steve Watts 6/7 times throughout the film. You might class him as one of the main characters but within this sort of film he isn’t compared to Katherine and others. Aaron Paul’s performance is done so well by only seeing him a couple of times, he still puts in 100%. Showing how he can act even at a mature way like this one. You see him in every emotion showing how truly great Aaron Paul is as an actor.

To the magnificent Alan Rickman who plays Lieutenant General Frank Benson. Eye in the Sky is his final screen role, who is based in England but in a different location to Katherine Powell. Frank is the character that is witty likes to have a laugh with people and even himself in certain scenes. To begin with the humour threw me a little bit but when I got to realise what sort of character he was it worked really well, it felt like not everything is doom and gloom in the military even in serious situations. General Frank wanted to get the job done same as Katherine which isn’t always helpful for international government and military. Alan Rickman plays this role so well not his best but it is a great performance from him. He really suited this final role being a Lieutenant General; it makes a difference from him being the bad guy even though he really did play an incredible villain. Alan should be proud of Eye in the Sky, he really makes an impact and it would have changed the way you viewed the film if he wasn’t involved.

Finally, Eye in the Sky was a beautifully well written film; if you like a good storyline that keeps to that story you’ll enjoy this film. The technology that they used was incredibly fascinating by how they filmed the little camera and what the cameras were capturing. Everyone put in a great performance, which was really welcoming to see for the late rested Alan Rickman. Which leads me onto the credits with a little memorial message for Alan, which was a really nice way of saying thank you to him for what he has done and thank you for watching his final performance.
Overall Eye in the Sky is not your usual war thriller but more of an in-depth realization of what the military have to do, to secure their targets.