“Eye in the Sky” (2015) is an ensemble film about a multinational military operation to capture terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya. A capture operation escalates, but when a little girl enters the kill zone, it complicates the situation. Is it worth saving theoretical lives to sacrifice one innocent one?

I only watched “Eye in the Sky” because it features Alan Rickman’s last live-action role (RIP). The South African Gavin Hood directed and cos plays briefly as an American military official. Hood directed the lame “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009), the better than expected “Ender’s Game” (2013) and adequate “Official Secrets” (2019). This film is closest to the latter except think “12 Angry Men” (1957) except more muted emotions, way more than twelve people deliberating not stuck in the same real-life room, but virtually and relating to drones, not the jury system.

“Eye in the Sky” is well-intentioned, but boring AF and probably would make a better television series than film because then the characters could be three-dimensional instead of archetypes. The film starts with the family of the little girl, and Hood works overtime to make sure that we like this (black) family. The father (Armaan Haggio) encourages his cherubic daughter, Alia (Aisha Takow) to play, study math, which is still considered a radical act in the twentieth century (I hate it here) and hates fanatics, but hides these beliefs to make a living. Mom (Faisa Hassan) wears makeup and looks stunning in blue even behind closed doors baking bread. Alia reads a kid’s book on London. We get glimpses of the military home life before they are in uniform to make them relatable. Everyone sleeps and hates waking up! They are just like you and me! Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) has a snoring husband and a cute dog. When she is in uniform, we see she has beads, but I do not know the significance of them because they do not look like crucifixes. Lieutenant General Frank Benson is kitted out in full regalia, but still buys a doll for a little girl so he loves children! Get it! These are nice people to empathize with, not kiddie killers. 

So does the morality change if the little girl comes from a fanatic family? Suppose she is a mean girl who enforces religious standards on other kids? Suppose all the military people were unknown actors instead of imputing each actors’ repertoire on the role? Everyone’s likeability is crucial for “Eye in the Sky” to work so we cannot dismiss them as cruel bureaucrats, but movies also must be interesting. Most people are stuck behind screens talking to another screen and/or with one other person or a handful of people in the room to exchange tense glances. In the end, most of the characters feel like audience surrogates screaming at their screens as if they are watching a horror movie and rooting for a character to avoid death. While there is tension in watching how the chain of command deals with a hot potato, once the decision is made, the drama leeches out of these rooms and into the streets, which are far more interesting.

I never saw “Captain Philips” (2013), but I do not think that there is a person alive that would not recognize Barkhad Abdi, who appears as Jama Farah, a Somali spy for Kenya who is the man on the ground in “Eye in the Sky.” Without this character, there is no movie, and he is not invested in the outcome in a way that just seems superficial for the other characters. He is willing to endanger himself and keeps trying to save innocents that cross his path. Instead of a multinational, diffuse focus, primarily focusing on the Kenyan operation would have made more sense. He has a woman partner, Damisi (Ebby Weyime), in the van, curses and is in his neighborhood. He also is not a fighter—think the anti-James Bond. He has no weapons and never fights. The film’s events are spurred by the assassination of a similar agent so the stakes are high. It just feels more organic to primarily follow him than a bunch of people that we never get to know. It is annoying that the film never reveals his fate.

Aaron Paul as the person manning the drone comes in second for selling his moral qualms about killing a little girl. His acting is undercut by the trope that one brave man can stand against injustice. He is also depicted as inexperienced though not as wet behind the ears as his work partner (Phoebe Fox), who is as wide-eyed as Anne Hathaway. They are both close to tears at work and go through a rigorous emotional journey from their lighthearted introduction to kiddie killers who are probably going to do worse than rock themselves after work. Focusing on them makes sense because Hood was interested in PTSD in drone pilots. It is also a marked contrast to the Secretary of State’s cavalier attitude when asked for his opinion. 

Otherwise I sadly cannot suspend belief that the safety of a black little girl would stop an operation for a second. Aiyana Jones may be the best-known casualty of extrajudicial execution in the US, but Google “black little girl killed by police,” and you will discover that she is neither the first, nor the last. Things are not much better in the UK though not as publicized according to a 2019 London Mayors office report on Violence Against Women and Girls and an activist group called “Sisters Uncut.” While “Bring Back Our Girls” was the most public outcry against violence against Nigerian schoolgirls, many are still missing or did not get rescued until after years of captivity. The girls’ association with a Christian school and the kidnappers being extremist Muslims probably aided in the outrage. 

“Eye in the Sky” seems to consider Powell the film’s focal point. While it may not have been the story’s original intent to cast a woman in that role, it felt like a politic move. In a lot of films, women are only allowed to fight other women, rarely women against men. One of the terrorists was a British white woman so this tracked, but also her decision to act regardless of the presence of a little girl is supposed to imply that if she is not concerned, she is not just some dude in power who would ignore a little girl. I love Mirren, but her character did not give me chills. The character is focused on the mission and just gets frustrated. I also got the sense that Sergeant Mushtaq Saddiq (Babou Ceesay) would love to get a new boss because he must hustle from beginning to end to figure out how to make her orders work. 

Also what is up with British leaders making decisions on toilets and their underlings having to deal with it? Game of Thrones’ favorite friend zoned Khaleesi follower Iain Glen plays the Foreign Secretary who suffers food poisoning, and his assistant must hand him a phone so he can decide the course of the operation. Tip: take off your blazer or jacket if you are stuck on the throne. 

Rickman gets a rousing closing speech to wrap up the proceedings and rebuke any viewer who wants to critique the military. We cannot critique them for acting or doing nothing. How about skip the movie entirely unless you adore the cast?