Seeing New Things Remake

The time has come. Even though I was warned off by Crazy Ralph, a.k.a Stacie, I went ahead and watched The Eye (2007). This is of course the remake of the Asian title by the same name, well the English translated name anyway. I took the warning seriously, even though Stacie and I don't always agree. Where would the fun be in that if we agreed every time? Since I planned on watching it, and it was already here before I got warned away, why send it back unwatched? If I'm anything, its dedicated to watching horror movies. Sometimes a little too much! Is this one of those times I don't agree with the almighty Stacie? Or was her warning something everyone should take to heart?

For those of you that didn't read my write up for the original film, The Eye is a story about Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba). Sydney was blinded by some fireworks when she was five years old. Now she is going through a cornea transplant that will hopefully restore her sight. The surgery is a success, although everything is nothing more than a blur for a while. To prevent her from being overwhelmed by being able to see things now, and to learn what these things are, Sydney is teamed up with Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola). Not everything that Sydney sees are things that most everyone else can. Once Sydney realizes this, she starts to try and find out who she got the corneas from, since she didn't have this problem until after the surgery.

For being warned off this film, I was surprised by the number of good reviews that it gets. I often see debates on which film was the better one, when it comes to remakes. I have always had a theory about this, which applies more to the original film being one from overseas and being remade by Hollywood. My theory is that it all depends on which one you see first. This isn't always true, but I have noticed that most people side with the one they happened to see first. More often than not, it applies to me as well. The Eye is a tough call as to which I would like best, if I had watched this remake first. I think it might have been one of those times my theory wouldn't work, because there are just a few reasons why I liked the original film more.

Those that haven't watched the original film, are probably the ones that are giving it the better reviews. That isn't always true, since the web site Slasherpool, whom I agree with more times than not, gives this version of The Eye four out of five stars. This was even after admitting to having liked the original film more. Of course, they also gave The Eye 10 a high score, and I didn't. Having already watched the original film, just a few days ago at that, I realized something about this remake, that I may not have picked up on otherwise. The Eye tries too hard to be scary. This remake is, more or less, a direct remake of the original. Very little was changed. In fact, you can find some of the same shots. Outside of the change in location, you can find two major changes to this remake. One change was in the ending. It ends on a happier note this time around. The other change is that there are more ghosts to be found. The dark shadow is still there, except now it seems more scary and threatening. I don't think it took notice of our main character before, but this time it does...and growls at her. I probably wouldn't have thought about it at all, just took it for what it is, along with all the other new ghosts that can be found here, if I hadn't already watched the original film. Because I have though, it has made me realize that the original film was much more subtle while it was trying to scare you. The Eye offers up a lot more jump scares, which probably wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much, if I had watched this film first. I have to admit that one such jump scare did manage to get me.

The effects seem to be strictly the CGI type with no blood, except for some bloody tears seen once in a while. The effects aren't bad really. The burned bodies looked pretty good, but I am getting just a tad tired of seeing so much CGI in a film. Many people have made fun of Jessica Alba, saying she just can't act, and this film is proof of that. I didn't have such a problem with her. I thought some of the scenes could have been better, but I bought into her character. I thought Jessica did a better job with conveying that she was happy about having her sight restored, and being overwhelmed at first by it, than Angelica Lee did in the original. The role of the doctor was changed just a little. He remains a love interest for out main character, but this time comes across as a bit of an asshole at times.

The Eye separates itself from the original by adding a few more ghosts, and changing the ending. It also does so by getting deeper into the reason Sydney is seeing things. There is a scene that talks about how other people with transplants have picked up habits they didn't have before surgery, but were habits of the person they got the organ from. All very interesting, but the first film didn't go there, and to be truthful, it didn't need to. It is pretty self explanatory, at least I thought so. The changed ending has some people mad, including myself. Well, I'm not really mad, I just didn't care for it. It did bring up an interesting debate on the forums though. Which is better to have: a happy ending, or an open ending, or an ending that ends on a down beat? I think it all depends on the movie. How things were played out before the ending of the film should be a big factor in the ending. There is a film that I have reviewed that will remain nameless, just in case you haven't watched it. I don't want to spoil it for anyone. But in this movie we watch a person being stabbed, and his death being recorded so that they have it on film. At the movie's end, we discover that he isn't dead after all, giving it a happy ending. Happy endings have their place, but I felt that one was in the wrong place. Same here, if you are stuck in traffic and a woman you have never seen before suddenly starts pounding on your window, telling you to get out because you are going to die, what are you going to do? Will you sit there and think, "Oh shit, I need to get out of here." Or would you sit there and think, "Ok crazy lady. What the fuck ever."

I guess I didn't feel The Eye was bad enough to be warned away from, but I still ended up not caring about it all that much. Sorry, but I will take a film that isn't trying hard to scare me, as opposed to one that is. I give this one credit for making me jump, and almost making me say, "Oh shit!" Still, if you can get the original film, I would suggest watching it over this remake, even though I didn't think very highly of either film. Not the best series I have reviewed, but it was still a fun one to get through. Next up, a guest review!
2 out of 5 Was the obvious body double shot really needed?