The Invasion Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)August 17th, 2007
THE INVASION
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
By any possible metric, whether viewing THE INVASION as a thriller, a horror picture, a sci-fi film or any other possible genre, the conclusion has to be that it is terminally lame. A remake of a remake of a remake, the first film in the series was INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS from 1956. All of them were better than THE INVASION, starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig (007) and Jeremy Northam. Although the film is about people who turn into stoic zombies, the performance by the leads can be categorized as sleepwalking through their parts.
The production was reportedly full of problems, with director James McTeigue brought into reshoot major portions after the studio wasn't pleased with what the credited director, Oliver Hirschbiegel (DOWNFALL and DAS EXPERIMENT), had done with the film. Script doctors were also hired to juice up the narrative. If any of this rework helped, I'd hate to see what the undoctored film would have looked like.
In this variation of the oft-told tale, a flu-like virus has struck the world. This alien infection brought in from a crashed space shuttle consists of only a few cells, but, once it attacks a person, they are doomed to walk the earth in a peaceful trance, while trying to infect others. The net result is that peace breaks out across the globe with Presidents Bush and Chavez singing Kumbaya together. All wars and insurrections immediately end, once the troops get the disease.
Kidman plays Dr. Carol Bennell, a psychiatrist who first notices something is awry when one of her patients reports that "My husband is not my husband." The brute has turned into a stoically supportive fellow who doesn't have a bad word to say about anyone. Dr. Bennell conveniently has a son who is quickly determined to be the key to saving all mankind.
One of the many problems with the script is that every essential plot point happens so fast and is explained so quickly that, if you blink, you'll miss it. Dr. Stephen Galeano (Jeffrey Wright), for example, explains the discovery of how the virus works in about thirty seconds, which is about the amount of time he takes to tell the reporters the cure right before the film ends.
There are also some troubling points of logic. In high heels and a tight skirt, Dr. Bennell is able to outrun a pack of men who are running fast after her. A bigger problem comes in her approach to staying awake. You see, once inflected, you don't enter the zombie world until you have slept and entered REM state. Knowing this you might expect Dr. Bennell to do everything possible to stay awake, but she doesn't. In particular, on entering an abandoned pharmacy, she doesn't bother to take any NoDoz-like meds. Instead she entrusts her son to stick her in the heart and inject one big dose of a very powerful med in order to wake her up one more time. She doesn't jog or perform other activities that any reasonable person would attempt under the circumstances.
To be fair, if the film wasn't so energyless, the above criticisms would probably have barely been noticed. But when a film stumbles along like a drunk about to pass out, viewers are more likely to notice and be bothered by all of its flaws, large and small.
The movie does possess one truly scary moment. The last scene suggests that the studio would like to do a sequel. Now, that's really frightening.
THE INVASION runs 1:39. It is rated PG-13 for "violence, disturbing images, and terror" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 17, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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