Shia LaBeouf, (22)  has grown to manhood on screen. I remember him in Holes, a 2003 Disney flick with Sigourney Weaver playing the stock Disney wicked woman. LaBeouf stood out as the rebellious boy in a bizarre detention camp for kids. He has appeared in 2-3 films per year since then. Most recently you saw him in the Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull installment this summer. Over the years he has regularly appeared in roles including the lead in Transformers, the golfer Ouimet in the period piece, The Greatest Game Ever Played, as well as minor roles in I, Robot, Constantine and Charlie’s Angels. So the kid has chops, which explains why I wanted to see Eagle Eye.

LaBeouf does an excellent job in Eagle Eye as the main protagonist, Jerry Shaw, the twin of a precocious, ambitious twin, his polar opposite. This film is an interesting example of what happens at the juxtaposition of fine acting and a sloppy script. A script fulfills a good deal of its pact with us the viewer by doing good exposition, having clever dialogue, engaging characters and a steady build of mini-events to the big climactic event. It does also need to make sense and the ending should clarify and give closure. No clarity, no closure, no happy aftertaste.

The premise of Eagle Eye, hangs on our technological catch 22 fix we’re in. Our cell phones, surveillance cameras and fax machines have become so functional to us that their ubiquitous usefulness is at once our blessing and our bane. And if you are into fear and conspiracy, they can be seen as potential weapons in the downfall of civilization. Their very accessibility can backfire. All this connectivity can draw us into hellfire at the infamous speed of computers. That established, we must sort for the beginnings of a story through inexplicable events such as a bombing of an Islamic funeral, disruption of subway and train services, and a child going on a music class field trip.

Within minutes we watch in horror as a religious funeral gathering is cratered by an overkill bomb sent by our country at the behest of the Defense Secretary, name of Callister (TV’s Michael Chiklis). We’re back with Jerry Shaw, copy associate at the local copier store; watch his ATM ring up to a whopping $750k balance. As we watch him enter his apartment, we ponder how we would react if we came home to a roomful of military weapons and boxes, just delivered by an innocuous delivery man. What would I do. No time. Jerry Shaw’s cell phone rings. His life is ripped from him; he is literally on the run, pushed along by ringing cell phones, flashing LED signage and the FBI. We next learn how to ensnare and conscript into servitude, a young mother, Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan, 32, MI III, Mr. & Mrs. Smith).

Rachel is the second pivotal character. Her cell phone rings, her son’s image on the screen revealing a call from her traveling son. Instead of his voice, a woman’s voice instructs her to turn around, as images of her son on a train momentarily fill the advertising LED screen on the building across the street. She is instantly ferocious, barely able to listen to the staccato instructions from this stranger. Monaghan’s skills  allow a believable look at this mother’s conflicting emotions as she refuses manipulation in such a bizarre turn of events (again, how would I react?) while galvanized into frenzied willingness to save her child, Sam Holloman (played by Cameron Boyce whose only film credit is this summer’s Mirrors). That’s the first ten minutes.

From this point on, the ride gets rougher and faster, the action building through relentless crescendos of emergency vehicle sirens, screeching tires, smashing vehicles and bewildering plot points as if a fevered Beethoven was making it up as his arms flailed. This movie is an amazing mess of action and confusion. Billy Bob Thornton does his thing with an equally proficient approach to the confusion and ultimate ‘what just happened?’ aspect of his character, the tenacious FBI agent Thomas Morgan. Rosario Dawson does an amazing job of disappearing into the role of high ranking Air Force officer, Zoe Perez.

So why does it sound like I like and don’t like this movie? Because. And…I don’t like the trend in these action films this year. Wanted and Hancock are mostly sci-fi in nature, so all the people that get hurt, although downplayed, are many, too much. For Eagle Eye, the body-counter rolls constantly. As this isn’t tagged as intrigue genre, but rather action, mystery, thriller, the terms collateral damage and acceptable losses don’t really fit. There’s the rub…Eagle Eye has more collateral damage than any movie to date…it is much more reminiscent of a video game, where the object of the killing games is to rack up points and kill stuff as quickly as your thumbs can go. If you die, well then, you just push ‘Start Over’. After the fast forward thrill ride that is supposed to be Eagle Eye, the let-down ending seems to imply we just push ‘Start Over.’

It’s a reality show that has too much collateral damage portrayed. I find that unacceptable morality, even for Hollywood.