The Invasion | 3/10
We are all finally greeted with the 49th remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and yes, it's every bit as unnecessary as you might think. Considering the talent involved in this project, however, I'm actually a bit disturbed at how bad it turned out. Oliver Hirschbiegel directed the outstanding WWII film "Downfall" a few years ago, and Nicole Kidman is among Hollywood's greatest actresses of this or any other era. Baffled by how terrible the film turned out to be, I did some research. Apparently the producers of the film weren't happy with Hirschbiegel's vision, so they went ahead and had a completely different director (James McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta) re-shoot entire scenes. This was clearly a terrible idea, but probably not the only reason for it's failure.
The plot presented here, as thin as it is to begin with, basically goes nowhere at all. Kidman's character contracts the 'virus' from her ex-husband in an attempt to take her child from him to a treatment center of sorts. What's worse is that nothing of even remote interest happens before this, and we're not exactly treated to edge of your seat suspense afterwards, either. Kidman spends the rest of the film in search of this so-called treatment center while finding out along the way that her son is somehow immune to the virus. The virus, for the sake of information, can only fully convert you after you enter REM sleep. It's alien nature and motive are barely touched upon at all. There is of course the obligatory sub plot of lovers, unconvincingly played out between Kidman and Craig, that are best friends but really think it's best if they stayed that way even though they clearly want to be with each other. You know, the usual Lifetime network effect. We're also given a handful of mediocre to terrible supporting characters that are each given their share of awful dialogue to delight us with.
I suppose it's not among the worst films I've ever seen, but it is without a doubt a miserable one. There are a few solid scenes with Kidman that quite literally save this from being a complete and utter waste of 93 minutes, but even those are few and far between. On the whole the film fails at literally every genre it attempts or presents, from Sci-Fi to Action and, worst of all, Horror. This is the least horrifying Horror film I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through. I hope for the sake of film that this talented director chooses to build on the promise he showed in Downfall by putting this embarrassment as far behind him as possible. To his credit, though, I would have to assume that whatever Hirschbiegel originally filmed was at least a few steps above the final product that was somehow unleashed upon the viewer.
We are all finally greeted with the 49th remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and yes, it's every bit as unnecessary as you might think. Considering the talent involved in this project, however, I'm actually a bit disturbed at how bad it turned out. Oliver Hirschbiegel directed the outstanding WWII film "Downfall" a few years ago, and Nicole Kidman is among Hollywood's greatest actresses of this or any other era. Baffled by how terrible the film turned out to be, I did some research. Apparently the producers of the film weren't happy with Hirschbiegel's vision, so they went ahead and had a completely different director (James McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta) re-shoot entire scenes. This was clearly a terrible idea, but probably not the only reason for it's failure.
The plot presented here, as thin as it is to begin with, basically goes nowhere at all. Kidman's character contracts the 'virus' from her ex-husband in an attempt to take her child from him to a treatment center of sorts. What's worse is that nothing of even remote interest happens before this, and we're not exactly treated to edge of your seat suspense afterwards, either. Kidman spends the rest of the film in search of this so-called treatment center while finding out along the way that her son is somehow immune to the virus. The virus, for the sake of information, can only fully convert you after you enter REM sleep. It's alien nature and motive are barely touched upon at all. There is of course the obligatory sub plot of lovers, unconvincingly played out between Kidman and Craig, that are best friends but really think it's best if they stayed that way even though they clearly want to be with each other. You know, the usual Lifetime network effect. We're also given a handful of mediocre to terrible supporting characters that are each given their share of awful dialogue to delight us with.
I suppose it's not among the worst films I've ever seen, but it is without a doubt a miserable one. There are a few solid scenes with Kidman that quite literally save this from being a complete and utter waste of 93 minutes, but even those are few and far between. On the whole the film fails at literally every genre it attempts or presents, from Sci-Fi to Action and, worst of all, Horror. This is the least horrifying Horror film I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through. I hope for the sake of film that this talented director chooses to build on the promise he showed in Downfall by putting this embarrassment as far behind him as possible. To his credit, though, I would have to assume that whatever Hirschbiegel originally filmed was at least a few steps above the final product that was somehow unleashed upon the viewer.