The Invasion

August 17th, 2007 by James Cook | Source:

Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Written by: Dave Kajganich. Based of the novel by Jack Finney.
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright

Score: 4/10

It’s been very easy to forget about The Invasion, a movie that seems to have fallen by the way side this summer. On the outside it seems like a movie that should deserve a little more attention then it’s been getting. It’s got some big A-list stars and a story that seems fitting for typical summer event movies. Then again with the problems this movie has faced it’s no surprise that people stopped paying attention to it long ago.

Shot back in 2005 and completed in early 2006, the first cut apparently didn’t measure up to studio expectations. The Wachowski brothers were brought on to do some rewrites on the script and their buddy James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) directed the re-shoots.

I’ve never seen the original or any of the other remakes, but I am very familiar with the story as it’s been used in other movies. John Carpenter’s The Thing and The Faculty come to mind right away. The basic gist this time round is a space shuttle has just had a crash landing and it’s brought back mysterious bacteria. People start becoming infected with the bacteria and it turns them into unemotional robots, under the control of the alien entity. A psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) notices people are changing and tries to figure it all out with the help of a doctor (Daniel Craig) and a scientist (Jeffery Wright).

The biggest problem with this movie is that it’s just so boring. You would think with a story involving global takeover and humans being replaced by aliens would be more exciting. Instead were given ridiculous characters that are bumbling around on screen for 90 minutes and trying not to fall asleep. Evidently it seems I may have become one of those characters because I was trying to do the exact same thing.

Another major flaw is the cast. I’ve seen some movies with horrible casting, but The Invasion is one of the worst missed cast movies in recent years. Nicole Kidman just doesn’t work as the single mom who’s trying to protect her son and figure out this whole mess. Daniel Craig as her semi-love interest is just horrible, there’s no chemistry between these two and his character in general just doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. Jeffery Wright doesn’t really work as the scientist working on a way to cure the infected, but does manage to salvage what he can and gives the best performance of the movie.

Within the last ten minutes there’s a pretty cool car chase with 20-30 infected people all piled on top of Kidman’s car. It’s exciting and the most eventful scene in the whole movie. It’s just too bad that it comes right at the end, and by that point you’ve already stopped caring.

Overall, The Invasion is a complete miss-fire. It’s so bland and uneventful that it becomes a chore to watch, and with already three other movies based on The Body Snatchers novel - what was the point?