http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/848/848054p1.html
The Eye Review
See the original but keep your eyes closed to this Asian horror remake.
by
Todd Gilchrist 
US, January 31, 2008 - Jessica Alba's new film
The Eye is less a horror movie than it is a superhero origin story -- sort of
Unbreakable by way of
The Sixth Sense, but without a surprise ending (or really any surprises at all). Based on yet another Hong Kong creepshow that was bought from its creators and subsequently transformed into a Hollywood suspense tome, directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud rely on far too many story and style clichés to offer more than completely conventional scares. All of which means that
The Eye not only qualifies as a lackluster horror film, not to mention general piece of entertainment, but confirms that Asian horror is one of the most undeserving and creatively disappointing Tinseltown obsessions of recent years.
Alba plays Sydney Wells, a blind violinist who must rediscover the world after she undergoes an operation to restore her eyesight. Her sister Helen (Parker Posey) wants to keep her company, but Sydney is determined to recover on her own. But when she starts experiencing frightening visions of screaming creatures leading friends and acquaintances to their deaths, she turns to Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) for help. Eventually, Sydney discovers that she has somehow gained the ability to see the past, present, and a possible future, and must now process that information in the hopes of saving lives -- potentially including her own -- from a mysterious and deadly event.
The Eye is emblematic of the sorry state of modern horror because its so-called success relies primarily if not exclusively on the stupidity and willful ignorance of its characters, and by extension, its audience. Sydney, for example, has spent the majority of her life blind, but she refuses help from her sister. This is understandable at first, but after just one creepy vision, wouldn't any thinking person be reaching for the speed dial, if only for emotional comfort? Helen, meanwhile, professes how guilty she feels for blinding Sydney in the first place, but is all but unreachable for the remainder of the film -- so much so that when Sydney does finally call, Helen has gone out of town without telling her. And finally, Paul probably qualifies as the most impatient and unsympathetic therapist in the history of movie doctors, being mean and generally indifferent to Sydney's increasingly disturbing visions before finally accusing her of imagining them in order to put off her rehabilitation and reintroduction into society.
Screenwriter Sebastian Gutierrez, who wrote 2006's
Snakes on a Plane and the equally-crappy 2003 thriller
Gothika, deserves a considerable share of the blame for creating these paper-thin characters and then chucking them into an equally flimsy story. But directors Moreau and Palud elect to employ not one original visual idea in the entire movie, instead resorting to animated camerawork that exudes style without a shred of substance. The vague sense of subjectivity with which the duo chronicles Sydney's returning vision occasionally works, but for the most part it qualifies as typical horror-movie style including fuzzy, shifting focus that only clarifies in time for the foley artists to hammer home the fact that we're seeing something terrifying.
Woody Allen's 2004 film
Melinda and Melinda reminded audiences that any story can be told from any point of view, no matter what the subject matter. Personally, I think I would have preferred that this film be made almost whimsically, a la a
Stranger Than Fiction-type magic realism, as much because it would actually herald a genuine reinterpretation of Asian-horror source material as the fact that the movie sort of already qualifies as an unintentional comedy. There's a moment in the film where Sydney gets in an elevator only to find a floating corpse creeping up behind her, and my first thought was that she would scream, "Oh, come on man!" Will Ferrell-style, confirming her exasperation at both these ghouls and the sad fact that no one believes in them except her.
Unfortunately, that sentiment was one shared only by yours truly as I watched the film. There's just nothing new, remotely original or even really scary about it. Again, it feels like the film wants to explore her situation as if she's coming to terms with a new superpower rather than enduring a series of terrifying visions. Alba is a passable lead actress and she does her best to project the fear and frustration of her newfound condition, but ultimately it isn't she who is subjected to a painful experience, but us. Because
The Eye, much like
One Missed Call,
Pulse and
The Grudge before it, may once have been a great horror movie in its native language, in Hollywood's hands, it's little more than a joke -- whether the filmmakers mean for it to be or not. So if you want to watch Asian-inspired horror films, go rent or buy the originals; but keep your eyes closed to this turkey -- unless you enjoy being blinded by boredom.
2 out of 5 Stars |
4/10
t:
spot for Jessica Alba's The Eye, opening in theaters on February 1. Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, the horror-thriller co-stars Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola, Tamlyn Tomita and Chloe Moretz.
