The Eye

The Eye (2008) starring Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, and Parker Posey.

Before...I went into this, knowing that in the past Japanese Horror remakes had been mixed. They had ranged from a good first attempt at The Ring, though not achieving the heights of the original, to a poor destruction of Dark Water, the original being utterly brilliant. So in the case of this film I was hoping for something worthy, though I have yet to see the original myself, though I am told that the original is worth a watch! However on the flip side of the coin I hadn't recently watched a train-wreck of a movie with Jessica Alba, Awake. It was truly awful and so in seeing that Alba was the star of this one I didn't hold out much hope, not due to her acting but due to her recent choice of movies, she really should fire her agent...

Concert violinist Sydney Wells (Alba) is well-adjusted to blindness, but undergoes a “corneal transplant” at her sister’s (Posey) urging. However, she begins to experience terrifying visions, and despite the counsel of her doctor, Paul Faulkner (Nivola), she suspects a supernatural cause.

So where to start...the phrase "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" springs to mind when saw this film...if that is true then really I should just stop right here and tell you my rating...However, although I am not a professional reviewer I do feel it is my duty to give you my honest opinion of this film. So here we go...

For me there is no saving grace about this film. To start with let's look at the acting, all of the actors seemed to have a fixed look of shock on their faces throughout, as if the director has said "I want you to be fearful because you never know what is going to happen", and because of that the film immediately lost me. Alba, Nivola and Posey have all taken one step forward to forced early retirement through choosing this movie in my opinion. the acting is truly dreadful.

Secondly, the plot...although I haven't seen the original, because of the way this film has been done it made the whole film seem kind of farcical. It is silly contrived and overall just a plain bad movie to watch. It has it's twists and I am happy to say that I was grateful for the twists, though it still didn't hide the films faults. Its like adding a dollop of whipped cream to the worst dessert in the world, it sweetens it slightly but it is still truly awful.

Thirdly, the genre...this is a strange one to talk about really, I don't often pick up on the different genre's of films, but when watching a horror movie it's meaning is to scare you, or it least to give you a few jumps. Instead, The Eye subjected me to a series of different points in the film where I was just laughing hysterically, and this all ties back into the acting, and also choice of music. I honestly feel that if they choose to use the theme from The Archers they would have had more success in scaring me.

I completely agree with empire's verdict that J-horror should now be left well alone. Yes it was successful in it's original form. Yes the original deserves to be made known to all the world. However what is not acceptable is destroying the true essence of the original films. Why oh why must we be subjected to 5th rate horror films. Enough is enough move on...no more crappy remakes. Leave the originals in the past and start to come up with your own ideas for films!! This for me was even worse than Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Masters of the Universe so for that welcome to my first no starred movie...

☆☆☆☆☆