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The Invasion
How many times have we seen “The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”
remade? What was once considered a perfect analogy for the infiltration
of communism in America during the “Red Scare” during the McCarthy era,
has been made, remade, rehashed, updated, tweaked, re-released, and any
other kind of euphemism since ever since the original 1956 movie. If I
may be so forward, I think the story has played itself out. Without the
back drop of the ever impending communist who can blend in with the
capitalistic society in the United States, who can act like us, talk
like us, go to the same schools, walk through our church doors, and who
can drink anything other than vodka, the real meaning of the story has
been lost on us. Even taking the story in the strictest Sci-Fi sense of
“anyone could be an alien”, this storyline is about as tired as the
Mutant Registration Act is to the Marvel universe.
Directed by
Oliver Hirschbiegel (“Downfall”) and written by David Kajganich (hasn’t
done anything else), “The Invasion” feels like a cross between a zombie
movie, “War of the Worlds”, and I’m sorry to say that it has just the
hint of “The Happening”.
After the crash of US space shuttle
“Patriot”, people start becoming infected with an organism that takes
over their body during their sleep. Of course, no one really knows
about this until it becomes so out of control. These “body snatchers”
are devoid of high levels of emotion that we humans feel. As the
invasion increases in the number of infected, we see that the result of
it being a new era in peace and prosperity. Carol Bennell, played by
Nicole Kidman (“Eyes Wide Shut”) wants to screw all that up. With the
help of her doctor friend; Ben Driscoll, played by Mr. Pouty himself
Daniel Craig (“Layered Cake”) they want to try and stop the take over
of the human race by this outside alien force. The two discover that
some people are immune to the virus and it just so happens that her son
is one of them. Carol must find her son who is being held by her
ex-husband, who also just happened to be the first infected, and rescue
him to take him to a military lab. The aliens, however, are trying to
root out people who are not infected yet. The aliens are bland and
emotionless creatures so they resort to things like throwing people off
buildings to see who in the crowd react. Carol must walk through the
city and try to hide her emotions to get to her son. I do have to say,
if you need someone to act emotionless and with as little passion as
possible, Nicole Kidman is the perfect choice for the role.
Grade – B-
It
almost begrudges me to say that I kind of enjoyed the movie. It was
nice to see a modern alien invasion happen that doesn’t involve huge
space ships blowing up everything. The aliens do feel like an opposite
zombie-like creature. Of course there is a lot of running involved. The
action is really decent for the flick which is kind of surprising
seeing the Nicole Kidman is in it. This is also probably the best role
Daniel Craig has been in. He can pout all he wants without destroying
everything that makes James Bond James Bond. Of course there is a
message in here but it’s not as smack-you-in-the-nose obvious that “The
Happening” was. Mankind can only be mankind with the possibility of
violence and war and all the bad things we do. I guess the final
message of the movie is “Is it worth it?”. If that’s the case, I don’t
think this movie really made it enough. You see news clips throughout
the movie of the changes like President George W. Bush meeting with
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the end of the Iraq War, and other
peace in our time events. One of my main problems with the movie is
that you cannot really tell how much of the world has been infected.
You have Bush infected but there’s a military lab/outpost that is still
trying to find a cure. You have a whole, large city infected but there
is a quarantine/road block established. The main ending is kind of nice
to see but it’s a complete departure from the source material. To
summarize, a bland, emotionless Nicole Kidman must act bland and
emotionless, aliens want to take us all over, and mankind sucks. Now go
have fun at the movies!
6:35 PM
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