The Invasion

Decidedly so, I ventured into The Invasion with very low expectation-- this is like the fifth remake of The Invasion of Body Snatchers, and well, while in vogue with current Hollywood, very often silly. But then I thought, this might be a great time to delve into the story again. These film have always worked as allegories of their respective time-- the first one was really about Communism, and now, I thought, would be an ideal time to tell a story set in modern time, the time of Bush, the time of the Patriot Act, war on terror-- how one can easily settle into a life of vacant pleasantness and conformity and become outraged, even violent, when others concede. I might just work, I believed.

However, under the not very watchful eye of director Oliver Hirschbiegel and writers DAve Kajganich and Jack Finney, this is the first Invasion without any sort of meaning whatsoever. There's ideas of meaning, but none actually there, it's utterly inept. The trouble starts when a meteor crashes down and glob of sorts starts making the human race act all funny, or not funny. Nicole Kidman plays Dr. Carol Bennell, a psychiatrist with a penchant for putting patients on medication, even her own son-- again maybe there's something there, about the mind altering effects of placing medicine on people, without actual consulation-- there's something, but no, The Invasion is all about sleek art design and slight monotone horror thrills. Daniel Craig, ripped of all of his charm, plays Dr. Ben Driscoll, ally to Carol and saving the human race. Both Kidman and Craig seem painfully miscast-- I just kind of felt bad for them actually. C-