Eye in the sky is a political thriller about the combined efforts of the UK, US and Kenyan governments to capture three extremist members of the Al Shabaab group who are all on the five most wanted terrorists in the Eastern Africa region, that are meeting in a house in the city of Nairobi. This force is being driven by Lt. Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) from her base in Sussex, England. Assisted by two drone pilots, 2nd Lieutenant Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) and Airman first class, Carrie Gershon (Phoebe Fox) who control the proceedings from Nevada, while Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) oversees the mission from a political point of view in London with members of the UK government as witnesses.

As the situation develops it turns from a simple recon mission with a view to capture into a shoot to kill mission as the surveillance shows that the extremists are arming two suicide bombers so what ensues is a political game to gain the authorisation to use a Hellfire missile in a civilian area, while dealing with the moralistic issues of acceptable collateral damage and loss of innocent life.

The fact that the movie is told in real time and jumps from location to location keep the tension high, and the political passing of the buck and unwillingness to make a major decision and to keep referring the decision up, borders on comical attimes so you find yourself getting sucked into the movie which director Gavin Hood must be given credit for as the concept and plot sound like they would be more suited to a novel rather than the big screen, yet it works well as a film.

Both Rickman (sadly in his last appearance on screen) and in particular Mirren owned the screen when they appeared and Mirrens calm demeanour masking here sheer determination toward the mission bordered on scary at times. Given that the mission is a UK based operating but the missile is being fired by the US army it does portray the UK as a little set in the bureaucracy of politics where the US seem to have their affairs more in order, which is humerously shown in a scene where the US secretary of state is interrupted in the middle of a ping pong game in China.

The moral and ethical questions are handled well, and the movie does humanise the collateral damage in a way that viewers will be divided as to what the right course of action is. The technology is scary and while the movie mentions that some of the surveillance methods used in the movie are still only in development it does bring to the fore just how progressive military technology has become and how detached from the fighting on the ground some elements of modern warfare is and it was good to see the realism of the questions being posed such as ‘What if this footage ends up on the Internet’ and ‘What type of propaganda can be spun from this incident’.

The movie is not without its plot hole gaps and it does focus on the powers that be rather than on the local Kenyan field agents who are putting themselves right in the firing line but I still found myself enjoying the movie and it you are a fan of slow burner, political thrillers then there’s enough here for you to enjoy this movie.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 Out Of 10