The Invasion (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]
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Movie Reviews of The Invasion (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]
Movie Review: Paranoid Schizophrenia or An Inadvertent Warning Against the Dangers of Collectivism.
Summary: 5 Stars
_The Invasion_ (2007) is a modernized and updated film version of the classic 1954 science fiction novel by Jack Finney _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_, starring Nicole Kidman as Dr. Carol Bennell, a feminized version of the main character in Finney's novel. Finney's novel has been previously adapted to film on several occasions and each time has attempted to make a comment on the given era (e.g. commenting on the communist menace, etc.); however, this version has been compared unfavorably to those other adaptations. Nevertheless, I feel that this version has something worthwhile to say despite itself. The film shows what happens when an extra-terrestrial disease invades the earth and turns the people of earth into emotionless zombies. Nicole Kidman who is a divorced psychiatrist living in Washington, D.C. in the movie (perhaps a jab at Scientologist ex-husband Tom Cruise here!) must unravel the situation as she encounters patients who claim that certain of their relatives or associates are behaving oddly or are not themselves. Together with her son (who turns out to be immune to the disease), Kidman must fend off the entire city, including her boyfriend who eventually succumbs to the disease. As the film unravels the atmosphere of paranoia builds and Kidman who eventually becomes infected herself must keep awake, else she too will become an emotionless and mindless zombie. In order to better blend in with the rest of the populace, Kidman adopts a posture of stoicism, thus suppressing all true emotion. The atmosphere of parnaoia builds and at times one wonders whether the whole thing is rather not a schizophrenic delusion. Ultimately there is a confrontation between the people as they now are and Kidman and her son. Kidman must choose between the invading alien presence and her former life and here the movie has a comment to make. While the invaders offer a more peaceful world, they ultimately have no room for her son among them (he being immune to the disease). Thus, we see how in any collective there is always one who stands out and how such a person has no room in the collective. So while the collective may be more "peaceful" in a sense, it also is crippling to the superior man or the one who stands out. In this case, Kidman makes the right choice and ultimately restores the world to the way it was before. Thus, her son is saved from the alien menace.Movie Review: Not Bad
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed this movie. I have always enjoyed good science fiction storytelling. That being said, this wasn't the best body snatchers remake ever...that Donald Sutherland sounding the alarm still gives me the creeps. I didn't compare it to those movies. Just took it for itself. I thought it was fun and suspenseful, and it had a more hopeful ending than the others. One of the main characters being taken over toward the end was of course predictable, but so what?
I thought it was fun.
I didn't understand how if every one was of "one mind" the main characters could so easily escape going onto another street and simply walking? Weren't the other people on the street of "one mind" as well. I also could have done without the vomiting.
Enjoyable.
Movie Review: Not as bad as they said, not as good as it could have been
Summary: 3 Stars
The basic premise of this contemporary remake of the classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is not bad. Spores from outer space cause a Space Shuttle crash. Haphazardly at first, and then deliberately, these spores infect human beings and take away their individuality. The film presents their arrival as a mixed blessing that poses a philosophical dilemma: on the one hand, it is human individuality that leads to violence and war; on the other hand, without human individuality we would be missing something essential. What that essential thing is the film doesn't say -- apart from the only partly glib answer that Nicole Kidman's character gives when asked what makes us more than animals: that the fact we now have postmodern feminism should give us some hope for the possibility of a better world. What this "human" thing that the infected peoples lose really is we can only infer from the fear that the characters in the film exhibit in the face of its loss. The film poses a question, that in the case of this version of "Invasion" is more a theological than a political question: is free will and its attendant evils really worth preserving at all costs?
I like that the filmmakers are willing to push for the bold response to this question -- that peace is incompatible with individuality, and that the latter would be a fair sacrifice for the former. On the other hand, I wish they hadn't pushed it so hard as to hammer in the contemporary implications of this message. The attempt to ratchet up tension by means of flash forwards and flashbacks that suggest the gravity of a situation also felt to me a bit overdone. The film is lacking almost completely in subtlety, and doesn't quite make up for this in scariness. On the whole this is not a bad film and strikes me as better than at least one of the sequels to the original "Invasion" -- and better than I had been led to expect from some of the critical feedback when it was out in theaters -- but not as good as I think it could have been with the talent and budget that went into it. This may be the result of the studio's decision to pull the film from German director Oliver Hirschbiegel and make it into a more conventional thriller than he must have had in mind.
Movie Review: The Invasion Has Begun, But Who Really Cares...
Summary: 2 Stars
I often find it perplexing why some actors and actresses sign on for some of the movies that they do, especially when it should be obvious from the get-go that the movie will not be all that great or even do remotely well at the box office. Case in point would be the most recent adaptation of Jack Finney's classic novel The Body Snatchers called "The Invasion" starring Nicole Kidman ("The Others") and Daniel Craig ("007: Casino Royale").
"The Invasion" follows the life of Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman), a Washington D.C. psychiatrist, who begins to suspect that many of the people around her, and throughout the rest of the city are acting suspiciously out of character. As the oddities begin to mount, and the rest of the world follows suit, Carol along with her close friend Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) believe that maybe we have been invaded by an outside force. It appears that the change in people's personalities and behavior only occur after they have entered a deep sleep for the night, now Carol and Ben must fight to stay awake and stay alive before they succumb to the change that is quickly overtaking everyone in the entire world.
I really wanted to see this movie when I first heard about it, but I found it odd that I hadn't seen all that many previews for it prior to its release. Truthfully, I don't believe I saw a single preview advertising this film's release until a week or two before its debut in theaters across the country. Generally when hardly any previews are shown prior to a film's release, it is a fairly good indication that the movie will not be all that great, and it will nine times out of ten be followed up by rather lousy reviews from the critics. Well, go figure the movie was released and what do you know, the critics seemed to absolutely hate it. With that knowledge I figured I wouldn't see "The Invasion" unless it was a cheap rental or free on TV at some point. However, I recently heard that the movie turned out to be better than expected and that some of the critics may have been overly harsh in their initial criticism of the movie. So, I decided to give the movie a try, but after viewing it, I should have trusted the critics and my own instincts about the movie, and avoided it completely.
"The Invasion" is one of those kinds of movies that tries really hard to scare the audience with genuine thrills, relying less on shock value; except it never actually succeeds in accomplishing its goal. The film's pace is way too slow, which works for some movies, but in this one it causes boredom to set in and a general lack of interest in the movie's overall outcome. The story for the film was somewhat strange to me, now I must admit that I have never read the novel on which this film is based, but I have to believe that for the novel to be as successful as it was it must have been more entertaining than this adaptation. Aside from the pacing being too slow, the motives for the invading force (presumably aliens of some kind, though we never see them or a ship) are somewhat confusing. It appears that their ultimate goal is for us to live in a world of peace and harmony, and they believe that the only way we can achieve this end result is for them to take us over. Well, that's all fine and dandy, except why go through all the trouble just to promote peace in our world. If they felt that we were too destructive of a race to ever truly achieve peace in our world, why not just kill us all, allowing them to set up shop on our world and then they could live in peace in our stead. At least that plot makes a bit more sense to me, plus it never was explained why they singled us out to begin with. I mean choosing us because of our destructive nature was their primary motive, but the fact that the invaders seemed to be willing to live out their days in our bodies indicated that they were content with living on our world. So, was there something wrong with their world, or was it destroyed or rendered uninhabitable? These questions began to become more pressing to me as the movie unfolded and the motive for the invaders began to seem more and more ridiculous and just too simple to believe. If the movie had addressed some of the questions I had raised, perhaps the movie would have been better, but the pacing still would have been an issue, though at least the actual story would have made a bit more sense to me in the process.
The acting was decent, but I expected more from at least the two leads in the picture, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Nicole did a fairly solid job as a single mother who is just desperate to save her son from sharing the fate of most of mankind, although in a few scenes I thought she went a little overboard with the hysteria as she struggled to find her son and then keep him safe. Daniel Craig was a little more on the other end of the acting spectrum; instead of going overboard in his performance, I found him to be a little too subdued and almost bored with his character, which led me to not care about his character's fate nearly as much as I should have. The supporting cast was alright, most of their performances were wooden, but I forgive that because I believe that was the way the director wanted them to act so the audience could differentiate between those who were normal humans and those who had been taken over.
In the end, "The Invasion" really fails to gain any real momentum within the story. The acting was decent, but a bit too uneven amongst the various performances that the unevenness begins to distract from the already dull story. Perhaps with better pacing, more consistent performances, and a much stronger motive for the invading forces, "The Invasion" may have proven to have been a better movie. Instead, "The Invasion" wound up being just another below average science-fiction movie that tried to take itself too seriously and found itself generally disliked by the critics and moviegoers everywhere.
"The Invasion" is rated PG-13 for language and violence.
Movie Review: WHY DIDN'T I SEE THIS AT THE MOVIES IT'S GREAT!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a GRRRRRREEEEAAATTTT remake of the old classic movie. You've gotta watch it. I must admit it didn't look appealing when i saw the trailers. And even when it was released on DVD the cover did'nt look appealing, but I just watched it and it was GREEAATTTT. Fantastic movie. I'm probably gonna even buy it.
This movie did well at the box office. 80 million worldwide, it probably would have done better, but the emotions of terror and suspense you go through while watching the movie didn't show in the trailers. If they had good trailers then i think thhis would have stayed longer. Great movie for the family to watch, nothing really bad .
Watch it i'm tellin ya it's good. Stars Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig (the new James Bond guy)