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'Invasion' better left on shelf
Movie Review: The Invasion
By Brett Troxler
btroxler@wbrz.com
Web Producer
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PLAY OFFICIAL TRAILER
out of 4 stars.
Starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, “The Invasion” hits box offices nationwide this summer. It’s yet another attempt to remake the original 1956 version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” which was based on the novel by Jack Finney. But don’t get yourself all in a tizzy to rush out and see this one, because of the movie’s released on the third Friday of August, speaking in terms of quality, “The Invasion” might be the one most deserving of the title, “Superbad.”
In this incarnation, a space shuttle explodes upon reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere, spreading contaminated debris from Texas to Washington, D.C. The contamination comes in the form of a spore from outer space. The spore, if able to invade a human body, leads to a sort of symbiosis, allowing humans to keep their memories and lives while simultaneously taking away their emotions.
If you’ve been infected, the spore manifests itself when you enter R.E.M. sleep, growing over the surface of your body and transforming you into a new version of yourself. When you wake up, you’ll feel exactly the same, they say. Almost.
Those that get the bug aren’t really zombies, though. They won’t feast on your flesh. Instead, they’ll try to coax you to drink a cup of coffee or tea in which they’ve vomited, and if you won’t do that they’ll just do it on your face.
In all seriousness, the concept of having to stay awake from fear of having already been infected while simultaneously running from those who’ve been invaded is a brilliant one. Unfortunately it is wasted in this movie, which sat on the shelf a time or two during production, and featured different directors at different stages in its existence.
The result is a convoluted mess, chocked full of awkward edits and pointless scenes. Watching it really gives off the impression that the movie was just thrown together in post production, with a sort of, “Just put that scene, here and we can call it a day” attitude.
“The Invasion” does have some intense moments. For the most part Kidman, despite an inconsistent accent, is good as the sleep-deprived, concerned mother. She’s just the actress to go all stone-faced in order to fit in with the unemotional infected crowd, and in the moments where sleep threatens to take her, she’s very convincing. Daniel Craig is passable in his performance, though he’s really not given any chance to do much more than that. The stoic, unemotional feel of the invaded is portrayed well by everyone involved, with the blank stares and their determined, yet indifferent gaits. But the good points in the film can’t hide the train wreck that is the rest of the movie.
“The Invasion” mixes in modern politics and current events, including the situation in Iraq and a passing comment about Hurricane Katrina, with a variety of news reports and conversations. Below the movie’s shallow surface there exists an underlying commentary on our existence as humans. As the infection spreads to governments and world leaders, peace erupts across the globe. Without emotion, there is no reason for these spore-driven humans to fight, as they are in a sort of harmony with others of their kind. This begs the question, “Wouldn’t it be better if all our problems went away?” I don’t have the answer to that, but I know this: In the real world, the human race would be better off if this movie had never been made.
