Considering that people have been losing their jobs to various forms of machinery ever since the Industrial Revolution, it's not surprising that writers ever since have penned cautionary "what if" tales about the same. From "Metropolis" to "2001: A Space Odyssey" to the "Terminator" films, Hollywood has also explored and/or manipulated human fear of being replaced or worse by machines. Of course, as such machinery has gotten ever more sophisticated, the threat grows exponentially.
All of which leads us to the latest such film, "Stealth." Rather than showing the result of house cleaners losing their jobs to those little automated vacuum cleaners that covertly suck up dust bunnies under the beds, screenwriter W.D. Richter ("Home for the Holidays," "Big Trouble in Little China") has concocted his tale around a fully automated military aircraft being introduced to replace flesh and blood pilots. The rationale makes sense -- after all, why risk human life when an expendable if costly machine will do -- and the U.S. military is already doing just that with its unmanned drones.
As in most such cautionary tales, however, it's not as simple as just that. Instead, something goes terribly wrong -- in this case, the fighter jet gets zapped by a lightning bolt -- and the machine soon goes haywire. Of course, it's one thing when the creator loses control of that vacuum robot that then tries to suck up Fluffy along with the dirt. It's another when the creation is heavily armed and could set off a global military incident with far-reaching consequences.
While that might sound like it has the makings of this generation's "Wargames" (the 1983 film where Matthew Broderick nearly starts WWIII by playing a "game" with a war simulation computer), director Rob Cohen never manages to conjure up as much entertainingly palpable suspense with this offering. And that's because he directs it much like his previous films -- "XXX" and "The Fast and the Furious" -- meaning it comes off like the cinematic equivalent of a raging case of ADD.
All of which continues the disappointing track record following the filmmaker's terrific break-out picture, "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story," that also had lots of action, but also a good story and engaging and well-fleshed out characters. Neither of which are present here. Sure, there are characters, but they're more caricature than the real thing. Josh Lucas ("Wonderland," "Hulk") plays the maverick pilot, Jessica Biel ("Blade: Trinity," "Summer Catch") the sexy but courageous one and Jamie Foxx ("Ray," "Collateral") doesn't show any signs of his recent Oscar winning capabilities while playing the hotshot ladies man. And Sam Shepherd ("The Notebook," "Black Hawk Down") is over-the-top bad as their one-dimensional commanding officer, all a result of poorly written roles and dialogue.
It also doesn't help that "Eddie" -- the increasingly sentient and resourceful fighter jet -- is neither interesting nor terrifying, especially when compared to his cinematic predecessor, HAL, in "2001" (that's given a bit of homage or is ripped off here with a similar lip-reading scene that's nowhere as powerful as the first time around). Of course, Cohen and company are far more interested in the action and effects than personalities, but the leaves the film about as engaging as the various explosions that otherwise try to fill the void.
Speaking of which, there's a gaping hole, or holes if you will, regarding the story. While the overriding gist is that of the human pilots trying to contain their renegade wingman, the story just jumps around from one big incident to the next, with occasional bits of downtime for Shepherd's character to chew up the scenery and Lucas to act all concerned about being replaced by a bunch of zeros and ones. Action fans might like the individual moments -- and I'll admit a few are fun if extremely illogical and/or unbelievable, like most of the overall film -- but they don't collectively add up to anything.
In the end, "Stealth" comes off like a loud and frantic, military-based video game. If handled correctly, that might have been somewhat fun, but it's just too bad the characters and story follow the meaning of the title too closely and thus never show themselves to any satisfying extent. The film rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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