FILM REVIEW: Eye In The Sky

The inevitable is that someone must die, but the question that lingers is, who's hands should the blood fall on? That is the concept that this drone warfare film which boast of a powerful performance by Helen Mirren pretty much tackles. Colonel Katherine Powell played by Helen Mirren commands a mission to capture high-level Al Shabaab extremists meeting in a safehouse in Nairobi, Kenya. Clad in a camouflage military uniform, Helen is the queen bee of this operation and she keeps calling the shots like a gun machine at war (well, technically, she is at war). In fact, Colonel Powell is actually the only character that was able to just make her decisions without wasting time in this entire film, unlike her other co-stars that kept hesitating as we see later on. She is well respected and the other officers all address her as ma'am; I was a bit jealous myself (yes, because nothing is sweeter than having all the power in your hands).

Unfortunately, Colonel Powell didn't exactly have ALL the power to her disposal. A reaper drone controlled from Nevada by USAF pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) provides an aerial view, while undercover Kenyan field agents use short-range video bugs for ground surveillance of the location where the terrorists are based. Kenyan ground troops are positioned nearby to execute the arrest, but are called off when Farah discovers that the terrorists have explosives, and are preparing two suicide bombers for what is presumed to be an attack on a civilian target. That is when Powell decides that the mission objective needs to be changed from "capture" to "kill". However, she is advised by her counsel to seek approval from her superiors. This is when the information is pretty much transferred from one superior to another, as they are all reluctant to make the difficult call, citing conflicting legal and political views. The film also becomes a tourism venture as we are taken through different countries. The mission is a multinational operation and the authorities involved are all located in different countries. While Colonel Powell is based in Northwood Headquarters and the drone controller is in Nevada; the mission itself is happening in Nairobi, Kenya and we get to meet officers in the UK, China, Singapore, etc. None of them want to have this blood on their hands so they keep referring Powell and her team to the next best superior.

Meanwhile, the situation in Nairobi is getting quite complicated. For one, the terrorists are going on with their plan and getting closer to reaching final stages; then there is also a girl spotted selling bread outside the building where the bombers are located. The military must now make the decision of whether to launch the attack and risk killing her too or stand down and risk having thousands of people killed by Al Shaabab. These scenes right here will have you the most frustrated. You get angry at the officials that are busy wasting time and you are really annoyed by the girl who is distracting the whole operation. It is easy to just root for a character to get killed when you are the viewer and the writers in this movie made sure to really grill us by pretty much influencing our desires but not giving us what we want for the longest time. It's like dangling the carrot in front of the rabbit and not giving it away until you feel so. When the strike is finally executed, it's sighs of relief galore for by the viewer, but we also somehow find ourselves praying that the girl is not hit. It shows just how Gavin Hood and his team really won at creating this film in a really emotionally evoking manner; which is what any good movie should entail.

"Eye In The Sky" probes away at the ethics of drone warfare in a darkly humorous fashion. There is a lot of military jargon involved but it is not in a way that disengages the audience. The cast does a steller job, and I have already gone on a blab earlier about how I loved Helen Mirren's performance. I'm a huge fan of war films and "Eye In The Sky" makes my 'good list' for sure.