Invasion, The |
  • USA / Australia • 2007 • 99m •   • Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel, James McTeigue. • Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright, Josef Sommer, Celia Weston, Roger Rees, Eric Benjamin, Susan Floyd, Stephanie Berry, Alexis Raben. • Music by: John Ottman.      While returning to Earth, the space shuttle explodes and the fragments bring an alien virus that recodes the human DNA. In Washington, the psychiatrist Carol Bennell observes the modification of the behavior of one of her clients first, then in her former husband and finally in the population in general. Together with her friend Dr. Ben Driscoll the researcher Dr. Stephen Galeano, they discover that the extraterrestrial epidemic affects human beings while sleeping and that her son Ollie, who had chickenpox when he was a baby, is immune to the disease and may save mankind from the outbreak.
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Why does projectile vomit come to mind, you may be wondering. The reason is, because projectile vomit is literally spewing out of everyone's mouths constantly & gratuitously in the movie The Invasion. You see, in The Invasion, they have done away with the sophisticated method for turning people into emotionless, zombie-like drones from the 3 previous films. In the 3 previous films, there was a process called "podification" that accomplished this. An alien, plant-like pod would discreetly start growing next to and entangling itself with a host body while he or she slept, and then it would create an exact clone body of his or hers, and then destroy the host.
But all that is way too "outdated" and not nearly so "hip" enough for The Invasion remake from 2007, in which the whole podification process is discarded and in it's place, you guessed it: projectile vomit. The aliens, the pod people from all the previous 3 films are completely absent in The Invasion and in it's place you have humans who turn each other into drones by literally spewing projectile vomit onto each other. If you think it sounds disgusting, you are right. Actually having the misfortune to be subjected to it in the movie is far more disgusting than me describing it though, so if you read this review then decide that a movie based on projectile vomit is not your cup of tea, then I have done you a favor by disgusting you somewhat now to save you from being even more disgusted from seeing it live on-screen. Oh, word to the wise: don't let that cup of tea anywhere near the virus carriers in this movie, as they have been known to spew projectile vomit into tea cups as their one and only "stealth tactic". Although usually, they spread the virus simply by projectile vomiting into each other's faces. It is notable that while the other 3 films featured an alien race invading and taking over the Earth, "The Invasion" only features a virus; no aliens. Despite being entitled The Invasion! Go figure. Maybe they got so excited by their brilliant projectile vomit film-making innovation, that they forgot the title no longer fit the movie they were making. The trademark, scary, much-beloved alien shriek and finger pointing from all 3 previous films is also absent from The Invasion.
The acting in this movie is universally terrible across the board. Nicole Kidman appears as if she is an emotionless drone in every single scene of the movie, starting with the very first one. But, she is supposed to be playing a normal woman, not a drone, so you can see why the whole movie slips on it's own projectile vomit and falls flat on it's face when the lead actress is required to be emotional for the premise of the movie to work, yet due to the actress chosen for the role, she is incapable to be emotional. There has been some compelling suggestions that perhaps it is botox that Nicole Kidman has injected which has caused her face to become incapable of moving in recent years. One thing is certain: her face certainly does not move at all in The Invasion, and there is little if any discernible way to tell Nicole from a projectile vomit drone victim at any point in this movie. They are equally emotionless due to bad acting on Kidman's part.
Whilst driving in this movie, Nicole Kidman completely turns around - while the vehicle is moving - to look at and talk to her son who is in the backseat. This is an act of lunacy. But it is played off in the movie as a "normal thing to do". Not only is this bad for the character in the movie, it is also socially irresponsible that the lead character, the role model, the "hero" of the film, is shown to be driving in a ludicrously reckless way. If anyone watches this movie and then comes to think that to turn around to look at and talk to someone in the backseat while driving is acceptable behavior, that could tragically lead to unnecessary fatalities in real-life. I suppose the projectile vomit innovation taking up most of the film makers' thoughts is again the reason why they didn't bother to pay any attention to this.
This movie was extensively re-shot by the brothers who made the Matrix films. Perhaps the original cut of the movie was somewhat sophisticated. But The Invasion that was released certainly was not. All the Matrix brothers did was add some extravagant car crash special effects to the movie. That's it. I suppose if you want to see some expensive car crashes, this movie might be for you. But if you are expecting a decent story, decent acting, aliens, or a movie that lives up the legendary brand name of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", you will be sadly disappointed with "The Invasion".
Needless to say, "The Invasion" is easily and by far the worst Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie. It's not even a good movie on it's own, even if one pretends the other Body Snatchers movies don't exist.
Do yourself a favor. Pass on The Invasion and rent all 3 of the previous "Body Snatchers" films; each of which is vastly superior to "The Invasion" in every conceivable way. And best of all, they don't have any projectile vomit.
Review by Navaros from the Internet Movie Database.
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