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The Eye (2008/I)

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110 comments in total

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79 out of 124 people found the following comment useful :-
It Could Have Been So Much More..., 2 février 2008

Author: applesauce91-2 de United States

I really wanted this movie to be good. Really. I think Jessica Alba is an extremely talented actress, and I had high hopes for this movie. J horror remake, interesting premise, Jessica Alba...sounds good so far.

But this movie left me disappointed in when I saw it last night. The movie relies on cheap thrills that aren't frightening to the mature moviegoer. I should have expected this, as it was rated PG-13, but the theatre full of screaming 11 year olds at every jump was quite irritating.

When it was all over, The Eye left me wanting more. The only thinking and mystery in the movie is done for you and the "science-talk" from Alba seems unrealistic. It relies on loud noises and horror movie clichés at every turn. The Eye is a definite popcorn movie. It may be entertaining for younger viewers, but if you want a deeper and more engaging story, look elsewhere.

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84 out of 145 people found the following comment useful :-
Effective scares and an excellent dramatic lead performance from Jessica Alba, 30 janvier 2008

Author: Max Million de United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In this era of stem cell research, where genetic re-programming results in human heart cells beating in a Petrie dish, perhaps The Eye's premise of cellular memory is not so far-fetched. Blinded during a childhood accident, gorgeous and gifted first violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) undergoes a corneal transplant. Previously confident in the dark, sweet Sydney's secure world becomes terrifying when she finds she can see not only dead people, but the prophetic visions of the former owner of her newly restored vision.

Everyone around her thinks she's going mad, from her unsympathetic maestro to her concerned sister Helen (played poorly by an underused and under directed Parker Posey) to her conflicted doctor in an underwritten and choppy character arc. (Is Alessandro Nivola playing an eye doctor or a psychoanalyst? Is he a staunch professional or driven by love to cross the line?) Sydney feels compelled to decipher her visions, sensing that if she does, the troubled spirit of the original donor may finally find peace.

Directorial flaws aside, The Eye's strengths lie in its superb visuals, effective scares and, above all, the impressive and convincing performance of its leading lady. Appearing in virtually every scene, Alba has you blinking tears when her eyes sting and second-guessing your own eyes when you see what she sees.

A remake of the Pang Brothers 2002 Hong Kong hit Gin gwai, The Eye is actually a Hollywood rip-off, traversing the familiar territory of recent thriller Blink, 1978's Eyes of Laura Mars and even Roger Corman's 1963 horror pic X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes.

The Eye has satisfying echoes of J horror plus ghost stories such as The Sixth Sense and The Others.

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84 out of 150 people found the following comment useful :-
Cookie cutter rip-off with unneeded changes, 2 février 2008

Author: Evan Snow de United States

If you watch this movie, be aware that Gin-Gwai (The Eye)came first. There have even been two sequels. The third one was called The Eye 10 as a marketing ploy by the US director. It is truly awful, so avoid it like the plague.

That being said, the thing that both US influenced versions have are a total lack of creativity, suspense, or originality. It is a pity that Ms. Alba chose this role, as it was merely a shell of the original film. Every scene was reproduced in a typical US-dumbed down format, with typical cheap Friday the 13th scares thrown in. This version ironically lost sight of the original vision of the Pang Brother's classic. Instead, they change key plot elements to "add to" the suspense, IE: American audiences can't think, so we have to hold up a sign that says "SCREAM".

Do yourself and others a favor and rent, or even better buy a copy of the original. You will not be disappointed. Sadly, the same cannot be said for yet another cheap, unimaginative, 80's camp pile of garbage rip-off in the mold of The Grudge, Hide and Seek, and Dark Water. Don't even waste your time downloading this tripe.

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40 out of 63 people found the following comment useful :-
Blurry around the edges, but still a fine sight, 3 février 2008

Author: Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) de United States

The Eye (2008) I knew going into the theater that this would be a bit scary. OK, maybe traumatizing. I had a LASIK procedure done a couple of years ago, and although I wasn't blind beforehand, I did have pretty bad eyesight. I know a bit about the trepidation - perhaps even outright terror - one feels before undergoing an operation on one's eyeballs. I still get a little skeeved when I see a closeup of eyes, come to think of it.

Jessica Alba plays Sydney, a blind concert violinist who has a double corneal transplant, and of course things go wrong. Not with the surgery itself, but with the psychological aftermath - she sees dead people. And dead things. And undead. And so on; it looks like she's tapped into a spiritual world, or something. No one else can see what she's seeing, which is par for the course in movieland, but all of the demons and smoke and fire and other sfx seem extremely, utterly, real to Sydney.

Alba is excellent, showing that she has more than just two (or three) talents to show the world. Her Sydney is appealing in her vulnerability; Alba, a beautiful young woman, manages to make you feel as if her character could, indeed, live in your world: less glitzy starlet, more three-dimensional person. Of course, she's still a knockout, and she IS a supremely talented musician, and she DOES live in a super-posh apartment in a high rise, but still. Alba shows wonderful range, from tender to fragile, without giving up any sincerity. The movie hinges on her ability to sell the audience on her character's Everywoman (to a point) status, and I think she delivers.

Some of you may be thinking you've already seen this movie before, when it was called Blink. In Blink, Madeline Stowe played a young woman who lost her sight as a child (as did Sydney) and then grew up to be a talented violinist; after a new eye operation temporarily restores some sight, she sees things. Just like Sydney. Huh. Still, this isn't a redo of Blink, it's a remake of a Chinese film called Gin gwai. Asian films have made the rounds of Hollywood in recent years (The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water), and although the remakes usually don't have the subversive bite of their original counterparts, some of them hold up rather well when inundated with high-tech CGI. The Eye does use special effects, but it uses them - pardon me - to great effect; you're not overwhelmed with attention-grabbing CGI.

The biggest debit in the movie is the love interest, Sydney's doctor, Paul (Alessandro Nivola), who seems dull and unimportant, although his believing in and trusting Sydney is a linchpin for moving the plot. He just seems vacant and stiff, hardly a commendation of Nivola's acting abilities. (Think of a younger Dylan McDermott.) On the other hand, a good counterbalance to Nivola is Parker Posey as Sydney's concerned sister, who, although she doesn't immediately buy into Sydney's rantings, does empathize and attempt to understand a bit better than the hunky doctor.

Overall, The Eye is a tense, shudder-filled movie that manages to dress up a recycled plot with dead-on performances and evocative cinematography.

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15 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Giving this movie a 6, 26 février 2008

Author: candidaheaton de United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I thought this was a good movie, it was more of a thriller to me. It makes me want to see the original. Jessica Alba was great, and her eyes looked really wild. Giving this movie a 6, putting it above average, yet not as good as some of the old school thrillers. I got a little lost at one point in the movie, and did not understand why the girl whom the eyes belong to seen these things. The movie put a question in my head, I wonder if something like this is possible? Can a dead person's organ's still have their five senses attached and pass them on. The movie also reminded me of Gothika, I like movies that give you the idea that the dead could come back to finish their unfinished business. This was a little different, this girls eyes were special, yet caused her a lot of grief. I would not pay to see the movie again in theater, however I would buy the movie just to watch on a cold winter's night at home.

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16 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
"These Are Not My Eyes." -- Slightly Better Than Most Would Expect., 1 février 2008

Author: horror_freak de Oregon

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"The Eye" is a supernatural horror/thriller about Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba), an accomplished violinist who lost her sight at the age of five. But with advanced medical technology, Sydney is able to undergo a corneal transplant procedure, which would restore her vision. After the surgery though, the fact that Syndey can see the world around her doesn't matter to her anymore, because along with it she is seeing ghostly visions and witnessing horrific events from the past and the future. It begins to seem that Sydney is taking on the traits of the donor of the eyes, and she must uncover her identity to stop the visions and put the donor's spirit to rest.

While I haven't seen the original Chinese version, I can say this was a decent horror flick. It's a PG-13 horror flick, yes, but it's rather sophisticated for being so. Most films in this type of league have reputations for being not-so-great (a couple of examples that I can agree with would be last year's "The Messengers", and this year's "One Missed Call", both being films that completely missed the mark). But this was better than a lot of the PG-13 thrillers that are out there, and it is easy to see there was some solid thought and work put into it. The story, while it is a remake, is intriguing. The entire idea of an eye transplant is a scary thing to begin with, and the supernatural element carried along with it is clever. I really thought the pacing in the film was great, it evened itself out when handling the suspense and scares with the dramatic elements and was gradual up until the end.

There is some really great creepy imagery as well and some neat cinematography, and that's where most of this movie's strength is. There are some genuinely eerie visuals in this movie, most of them unlike any I've seen before, and there are some clever shocks and scares as well. I even have to admit that I jumped a couple of times and was slightly spooked, so I have to applaud the direction because they did a good job with that. I also immensely enjoyed the sequences where we get to see through the lead character's eyes, blurry vision and all, which was a neat way to put the audience in her shoes as her life spirals out of control after the procedure. I'm really squeamish when it comes to anything involving someone's eyes too, as many people are I'm sure, so a few moments did get my skin crawling.

I'm not going to lie, this movie does have some standard clichés but manages to be at least halfway original in some aspects. The acting is decent, nothing remarkable but Jessica Alba makes a likable lead here. Parker Posey is good too as her older sister, although her part is pretty small. Alessandro Nivola plays the role of the doctor who initially doesn't believe anything the Alba character is saying, a role we know too well, but does what he can with it. Also notable is Chloe Moretz of "The Amityville Horror" remake, playing a young cancer patient. The action-laced ending was a little flat if you ask me, and the revelation of the ghost's discontentment was well-thought out but also a little flat. I'm not going to harp on it though, because I felt there was sufficient effort put into this, and I for the most part enjoyed most of the movie.

Overall, in my eyes (pun intended), "The Eye" is a decent horror movie. It's not perfect by any means, but I can say it's better than most of the PG-13 horror flicks that have hit theaters in recent years. All in all it's a bit above average, and worth seeing if you like this sort of thing. It serves a few good scares and some interesting ideas, managing to be halfway refreshing compared to most horror films lately. I'd also like to add that this was far better than the atrocious remake of the Japanese horror movie, "One Missed Call", which was released about a month before this. So, if you were put off by that mess of a movie, I'd say give this one a chance, it might surprise you. It did me, anyway. 7/10.

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Mediocre Horror, 25 mai 2008

Author: bertbert de UK

OK, so it isn't the best horror movie ever made, but it also isn't the worst.

The premise is reasonable (for a horror) and despite a few plot holes the film manages to build the suspense. Alba's acting is not exactly award winning, but she does enough to avoid you disbelieving the character.

The biggest gripe I have is that the ending is a bit of an anticlimax. After the build up (I think there should have been a bit more with the apartment residents) it just fizzled out.

Overall I wouldn't rush out to buy the DVD, but if there isn't anything else on, you could do worse.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Another blinking remake!, 25 mars 2008

Author: ba.harrison de Hampshire, England

With virtually every successful Asian horror movie of the last few years having already been remade by Hollywood, it was only a matter of time before Gin gwai (AKA The Eye) got the treatment, despite the original not really being all that great (I found it fairly entertaining, but unexceptional—my rating: 6/10).

Jessica Alba plays Sydney Wells, a blind violinist who receives a cornea transplant only to discover that her new set of peepers allow her to see much more than she had originally bargained for: Sydney can see dead people!! Aided by her doctor, she attempts to unravel the terrible secret behind her scary supernatural power.

Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, The Eye is a totally unnecessary and dreary remake that copies parts of original verbatim, alters scenes that should have been left well alone (the creepy cafe meat-licking scene has gone, and the downbeat ending has been swapped for a typical Hollywood crowd pleaser), and totally botches what should be the scariest bit of the whole film (the lift scene is VERY disappointing).

Take my advice: If you've already seen Gin gwai, then stay away from The Eye.

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18 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Not as bad as people make it sound, 13 avril 2008

Author: deathsentencefanlife-1 de United States

The Eye was not a great movie but it's not horrible either. It was about an average movie. I was not expecting a lot going into seeing this movie. If you are expecting a lot going into this movie it will not be good but if your just looking to see a movie and thinking its going to be good you might actually like it. Pretty much the whole entire beginning and almost all of the middle was boring and just had very sudden scenes that would get you to jump out of your seat. The rest of the movie was when it started to kick up and get good. Jessica Alba finally started to find out what she had to do and what was going on with her and people around her. Thats when the action started and it had you on the edge of your seat. For the most part it was pretty slow moving and boring but then it kicked up it was good. If the first hour of the movie was like the end it would have of been an excellent movie. So if your looking for a pretty scary movie with lots of things that pop out at you go see this. The story was actually pretty good as well. The fact that it made you wait to find out why she became blind was well done. The acting job Jessica Alba did was good as well. The visual effects for this movie were also awesome.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Prepare to be blinded by boredom..., 10 juin 2008

Author: CannibalSadist666 de Hell

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

If you have already seen the Pang brother's original version of "The Eye", than sitting through this remake would be a waste of time. This is pretty much an Amercanized clone without the unsettling mood, unbridled tension, and eerie, atmospheric quality the Pang's brought to their film. A violinist, stricken with blindness as a child, undergoes a retina transplant and is thrust into a world of horrific visions that only she sees. Jessica Alba is always easy on the eyes (was that a pun?) and is probably the saving grace of this movie, while the rest bored me. For some reason, whether it be the heavily contrived dialogue or just the typically bland suspense - remakes of Asian horror films just can't seem to properly portray the same merit the proceeding film maker(s) conducted, instead just demonstrating another artificial, "box-office-hit" motivated film. I'll probably hold off on seeing "One Missed Call" as, I'm sure, will disappoint like "The Eye" did...

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