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The Invasion (2007)

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Average user rating

3 reviews

Synopsis

In this fourth version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Nicole Kidman plays a psychiatrist who discovers that an alien virus is attacking humans as they sleep.

Movie review

From Time Out New York

Like a bottomless well of alien goo, Jack Finney’s 1955 novella The Body Snatchers continues to irrigate fresh remakes. And here’s one for the pod people. How else to explain this offensively dumbed-down version, an $11 brain wipe? Today’s moviegoing vegetables apparently have no time to suss out subtle paranoias, as Don Siegel laced into his expert 1956 original. No inclination to distinguish between docile, colonized souls and, say, a stiffly directed Nicole Kidman or Daniel Craig (both of whom redefine the term pod casting). No patience to reflect on boomer urban anxieties—as did Philip Kaufman in his sly San Francisco 1978 remake—or military monomania, as Abel Ferrara managed in his 1993 tweak.

What do pod folk really want? They want projectile vomiting. They want ridiculous CGI stunts involving several people squirming on top of a speeding car. (Thank the Wachowskis for that; the film was taken away from its credited director and given to Team Matrix to spice up.) A little kid in jeopardy would be nice, as would a happy, curable ending. Yes, I’m ruining it for you. America is certainly due for a Body Snatchers remake—has been since the Patriot Act or Sanjaya. But to set a new version in the capital and not allude to our Pod in Chief is a crime. Amazingly, a final gesture suggests our war-happy behavior, pointless occupation and xenophobia are human traits worth treasuring. The invasion couldn’t come any sooner.

Author: Joshua Rothkopf 2007-08-22 18:15:08

Time Out New York Issue 621: August 23–29, 2007

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User reviews of this film

ed roberts said...

Posted on Oct 28 2007 13:41 how did they bugger this one up?
one of the creepiest premises in any sci fi movie and they render it pointless by jettisoning the pods, the pointing and screaming, the hordes of people chasing a few dwon the street with ant like synchonicity... all is missing and yet replaced with intelligible science drivel, snot and bad acting...
only good bit were the couple jumping off the roof to flush out none infected.... although I felt like jumping after them, about a 3rd of the way in....
has Daniel Craig ever been in a good film?
PLUS they cure the disease... Total crap... Even Abel Ferrara's 1990s reake is a classic compared to this...

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jojo said...

Posted on Oct 16 2007 09:23 Oh dear. Nicole and Daniels bankability must have shot down after this one!!!
What a disappointment, wooden acting by both even when they werent acting as pod people and what a let down on the lack of special effects and gooey squidgey bits and trying to make it more into a thriller. Crappy altered ending and also whatever happened to the seperate husks as the original humans died and the pod person was born. Load of bollocks.

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Leona Luk said...

Posted on Sep 09 2007 18:11 Well I don't know about anyone else, but I laughed. No, that was not what was supposed to happen, but sometimes these things simply cannot be helped.
Nicole Kidman is silly and Daniel Craig is just stupid here. There could have been rich material, however it was conveniently ignored. The pod people have this argument for their, um, lifestyle - it promotes peace and harmony among all. Who doesn't want to live in peace an harmony? Nicole - that's who. She's ruining this for all of us with her stifled gasps and barely contained tears - see those pod people can tell who is not a pod person by who shows emotion. As much as I tried to not show emotion as I watched, I couldn't help myself and burst into laughter about two thirds of the way in. It didn't bother anyone else in the theatre though, since it was basically empty.

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