The Invasion (Dvd) - Both

At first glance this movie is a modern Hollywood science fiction thriller. Aliens inhabit bodies; try to take over the world, things explode. And if that is what you go into this movie expecting you will be disappointed. I believe this is why this movie was panned almost universally. I came into it expecting just that and was pleasantly surprised that is was not. Yes, this does happen (and there is an explanation as to why) but not in the Will Smith July 4th blockbuster way. This movie attempts to make a very shallow message with its bodysnatching. I’m sure the original did so as well, but having not seen it I cannot vouch for its success in this area. This message, that humans are themselves a destructive force to humanity. Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) finds that the world is being taken over by an entity that fell from space that inhabits humans like a common cold (through the blood or bodily fluids). When the humans fall asleep the alien inhabitant is given the ability to put the human into a permanent mode of R.E.M. sleep and thus control it forever, the human looks the same but acts as if they were on some pretty good medication. This method of bodysnatching gives the film a pretty good plot device that the writer exploits. Carol is given the virus pretty early in the movie, and thus has to stay awake for the remainder of the movie, lest she turns. Since the aliens can’t identify themselves she only has to act without emotion to blend in. This lends the film its most suspenseful and successful moments. Carol walks down streets with eerily vacant crowds and must remain calm. The film emits a claustrophobic feeling by just following her. Where the film falls apart is when it turns into the blockbuster it never wanted to be.
Let me give you a little history.
Around October 30, 2005 the film was finished with no green screen action and minimal visual effects by director Oliver Hirschbiegel, this version did not seem viable to the studios (interpret: needed more explosions) and thus the Wachowski brothers were enlisted to infuse it with action. After 17 days and 10 million dollars the film was finished, again.
These “infused with action” scenes are quit obvious, and slowly rip at the films message, integrity, and quality as each extra flies from each resulting explosion till we are left a Nicole-Kidman-saves-the-day moment. Sad, really. I guess studios really know what the public wants…
And this is the general quandary of this film. I believe the film did not succeed because it wasn’t a Blockbuster Alien flick, but it wasn’t a subtle suspense film either. It attempted to be both, and you cannot serve two masters. Might it have been successful without the magic touch of the Wachowski brothers, I think so.

4 out of 10: While it remains subtle, this film works, but when it strays from its origins it fails miserably.