The first thing you need to know about The Invasion is that the antipathy bestowed upon it is completely unwarranted, for this is not a bad movie.
It's not the greatest entry in the franchise so far, falling short of the truly spectacular 1978 cover, but nor is it the worst. It does succeed in places where the tragic 1990's rendition failed, albeit that one had its moments too.
The Invasion, in fact, feels a lot like the pod people won and are now calling the cinematic shots. And from this reviewer, who for one has always wondered whether the pre-pod world was all that hot to begin with, that's a compliment.
This latest Body Snatchers has a bit of a mechanical tone to it, and it surely is of the least positive disposition towards "normal" people. Whatever keeps sending these sinister invaders our way must have approved. At any rate, The Invasion is also quite pertinent and has a message to convey about the society we find ourselves living in, although, and unlike its predecessors, it goes to pains in needlessly dating itself. There's constant talk of the war in Iraq, Venezuela's Chavez and North Korean nukes. The politicizing we could have done without.
Also, it begins with a worryingly Resident Evil-esquire scene, but we soon find out that it was merely a flash forward. The Invasion has quite a few of those, by the way. After that, it's mostly smooth sailing until the awkward ending.
In its favor, the film produces a novel twist on the invaders' arrival, this time not via some whooshing, psychedelic 70's Technicolor wonder but through the vehicle of a shuttle disaster.
Once on Earth, the critters begin taking over, and the movie's jabs at contemporary, noise-obsessed society commence. You see, the normals are all emotional, borderline neurotic basket cases addicted to Blackberries, headset-less PSP's and car horns. You can't trust them with anything. The turned people come across as cool, collected and absolutely civil. They just don't have much in the way of emotion.
That's why The Invasion can't be written off as a bad flick: it does have something to say, and is surprisingly unabashed about it. And unlike any of the previous episodes, it offers a perplexing choice, almost as if becoming one of them isn't so bad after all. Touched upon in the older movies, here it's much more pronounced, which I for one applaud.
So we get Nicole Kidman as Dr. Carol Bennell, a shrink who gradually begins seeing strange things around her. Together with her work scientists Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) and Stephen Galeano (Jeffrey Wright). While Kidman does a good job overall, the two male leads get very little room to show off their skills.
And yes, Nancy Cartwright returns for a cameo and she's as good as ever.
There's also some motherly melodrama with Bennell's son Oliver (Jackson Bond), and you will please note that many of the names used are tributes to characters past, only here Bennell and Driscoll are gender-reversed. This also applies to the urban setting, now in east coast DC, which recalls the San Francisco of Kaufman's 1978 rendition, even if its less palpably paranoid.
Most likely the one factor contributing to The Invasion's lukewarm reaction is its ending. Well intentioned and meant to make us think about why is it so important to hold on to our humanity, it culminates in a goofy mess where, wait for it, the marines and modern science come to save the day. "Save the day" is bad enough in the Snatchers canon, for what remains without the concept's bleak hopelessness? In The Invasion's case, what remains is the realization that after ridding themselves of hostile interstellar microbes, the characters are back to square one in a world where people kill other people and civility is a thin veneer. If it wasn't so bluntly obvious and tacky, this ending could actually have had some philosophical impact.
So yes, this isn't a bad movie. It's too short and not adult-oriented enough, suffers from a cumbersome finale and has very little genuine atmosphere.
But it's also inventive with the license given it and highly relevant to the sad truth we all know so well, that indeed civility, our precious social orders and even humanity, are always in question. Something to think about.
It's not the greatest entry in the franchise so far, falling short of the truly spectacular 1978 cover, but nor is it the worst. It does succeed in places where the tragic 1990's rendition failed, albeit that one had its moments too.
The Invasion, in fact, feels a lot like the pod people won and are now calling the cinematic shots. And from this reviewer, who for one has always wondered whether the pre-pod world was all that hot to begin with, that's a compliment.
This latest Body Snatchers has a bit of a mechanical tone to it, and it surely is of the least positive disposition towards "normal" people. Whatever keeps sending these sinister invaders our way must have approved. At any rate, The Invasion is also quite pertinent and has a message to convey about the society we find ourselves living in, although, and unlike its predecessors, it goes to pains in needlessly dating itself. There's constant talk of the war in Iraq, Venezuela's Chavez and North Korean nukes. The politicizing we could have done without.
Also, it begins with a worryingly Resident Evil-esquire scene, but we soon find out that it was merely a flash forward. The Invasion has quite a few of those, by the way. After that, it's mostly smooth sailing until the awkward ending.
In its favor, the film produces a novel twist on the invaders' arrival, this time not via some whooshing, psychedelic 70's Technicolor wonder but through the vehicle of a shuttle disaster.
Once on Earth, the critters begin taking over, and the movie's jabs at contemporary, noise-obsessed society commence. You see, the normals are all emotional, borderline neurotic basket cases addicted to Blackberries, headset-less PSP's and car horns. You can't trust them with anything. The turned people come across as cool, collected and absolutely civil. They just don't have much in the way of emotion.
That's why The Invasion can't be written off as a bad flick: it does have something to say, and is surprisingly unabashed about it. And unlike any of the previous episodes, it offers a perplexing choice, almost as if becoming one of them isn't so bad after all. Touched upon in the older movies, here it's much more pronounced, which I for one applaud.
So we get Nicole Kidman as Dr. Carol Bennell, a shrink who gradually begins seeing strange things around her. Together with her work scientists Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) and Stephen Galeano (Jeffrey Wright). While Kidman does a good job overall, the two male leads get very little room to show off their skills.
And yes, Nancy Cartwright returns for a cameo and she's as good as ever.
There's also some motherly melodrama with Bennell's son Oliver (Jackson Bond), and you will please note that many of the names used are tributes to characters past, only here Bennell and Driscoll are gender-reversed. This also applies to the urban setting, now in east coast DC, which recalls the San Francisco of Kaufman's 1978 rendition, even if its less palpably paranoid.
Most likely the one factor contributing to The Invasion's lukewarm reaction is its ending. Well intentioned and meant to make us think about why is it so important to hold on to our humanity, it culminates in a goofy mess where, wait for it, the marines and modern science come to save the day. "Save the day" is bad enough in the Snatchers canon, for what remains without the concept's bleak hopelessness? In The Invasion's case, what remains is the realization that after ridding themselves of hostile interstellar microbes, the characters are back to square one in a world where people kill other people and civility is a thin veneer. If it wasn't so bluntly obvious and tacky, this ending could actually have had some philosophical impact.
So yes, this isn't a bad movie. It's too short and not adult-oriented enough, suffers from a cumbersome finale and has very little genuine atmosphere.
But it's also inventive with the license given it and highly relevant to the sad truth we all know so well, that indeed civility, our precious social orders and even humanity, are always in question. Something to think about.