I actually went into this movie with pretty high expectations, considering that the Wachowski brothers were involved and it seemed like an interesting premise from the trailers. Well, as it turned out, somehow all of that potential was utterly wasted. From beginning to end this movie is boring, predictable, and terribly clichéd. I kept hoping until the end that at some point it would get better, but bit for bit everything in this movie is the epitome of all that is trite and stale in sci-fi movies and little to nothing of what is interesting and original.
Every crummy sci-fi/horror movie starts out with little hints of whatever fantastic thing is supposed to happen later, and so did The Invasion. Except, in The Invasion this whole section keeps pointing out things to the audience that were mind-numbingly obvious. "My husband is not my husband anymore..." Oh really? Well surely she's just some nut-case and it has nothing to do with the storyline that's been explained on TV commercials and in movie trailers for the past several months! I honestly don't understand why filmmakers like these frequently feel the need to spend half of the movie beating the audience over the head with information that they could (and probably already did) find in a one sentence synopsis of the film.
Per the typical, trite sci-fi/horror movie formula there's also a scene where the main character brings a same of something weird to a scientist and he examines it and conveniently explains everything that the audience needs to know about the substance/disease/alien race in a straightforward, uninteresting way. There are so many scenes like this where the characters are supposed to be revealing something new and interesting but it just comes out as if the writers think that the audience is a a bunch of slobbering morons who can't take a simple hint.
Here's one detail that particularly struck me for its idiocy: about a third of the way through the movie, there's a scene where the Russian guy (who cares what his name is) basically explains (through a convenient monologue) the thesis of the movie which goes something like, "a world without newspapers constantly talking about violence and hatred is a world without humanity." Later on, there are some segments showing on a TV that say that fighting has ended in Iraq and then Daniel Craig's character gives another speech that is very obviously supposed to be a counterpoint to the first one that goes something like, "in our world, there is no need to hurt one another." At the end, after the aliens are nearly destroyed Daniel Craig talks about how 87 people just died in Iraq. As if ALL this information wasn't enough to make you draw some sort of a connection, they just have to drill it directly into your skull by replaying the Russian guy's quote again. I could mention plenty more things like this, but I'm starting to get annoyed.
Every crummy sci-fi/horror movie starts out with little hints of whatever fantastic thing is supposed to happen later, and so did The Invasion. Except, in The Invasion this whole section keeps pointing out things to the audience that were mind-numbingly obvious. "My husband is not my husband anymore..." Oh really? Well surely she's just some nut-case and it has nothing to do with the storyline that's been explained on TV commercials and in movie trailers for the past several months! I honestly don't understand why filmmakers like these frequently feel the need to spend half of the movie beating the audience over the head with information that they could (and probably already did) find in a one sentence synopsis of the film.
Per the typical, trite sci-fi/horror movie formula there's also a scene where the main character brings a same of something weird to a scientist and he examines it and conveniently explains everything that the audience needs to know about the substance/disease/alien race in a straightforward, uninteresting way. There are so many scenes like this where the characters are supposed to be revealing something new and interesting but it just comes out as if the writers think that the audience is a a bunch of slobbering morons who can't take a simple hint.
Here's one detail that particularly struck me for its idiocy: about a third of the way through the movie, there's a scene where the Russian guy (who cares what his name is) basically explains (through a convenient monologue) the thesis of the movie which goes something like, "a world without newspapers constantly talking about violence and hatred is a world without humanity." Later on, there are some segments showing on a TV that say that fighting has ended in Iraq and then Daniel Craig's character gives another speech that is very obviously supposed to be a counterpoint to the first one that goes something like, "in our world, there is no need to hurt one another." At the end, after the aliens are nearly destroyed Daniel Craig talks about how 87 people just died in Iraq. As if ALL this information wasn't enough to make you draw some sort of a connection, they just have to drill it directly into your skull by replaying the Russian guy's quote again. I could mention plenty more things like this, but I'm starting to get annoyed.