Space shuttle Patriot crashes in Washington, DC and multiple life forms from space expectedly survive the crash, taking over human bodies and the world… not.
While the title of the movie might sound very much like it involves the usual plot where extra terrestrials invade earth with plans of eradicating the human race, The Invasion is a science fiction action thriller whereby, unlike War of the Worlds you get every bit of what it’s supposed to be –a dash of action, loads of thrilling and a rather generous dollop of science fiction.

What is The Invasion?

For some reason, there are 4 films based on Jack Finney’s novel, The Body Snatchers.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a 1956 film directed by Don Siegel was one. Later in 1958, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, a film with a similar plotline appeared, and that makes 2. The last film before 2007’s The Invasion made its debut was a highly successful version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Phillip Kaufman which earned back a profit of approximately 8 times its budget in the States.

The Invasion is the 4th remake of this series of novels and films, and because it’s in the year 2007, a plot revolving around aliens who invade the earth, taking over human bodies might sound a bit unrealistic and stale.

So in this remake, the snatchers come in the form of this translucent slime-like being, which was attached to the shuttle. Of course, the too-curious-for-their-own-good humans proceed to touch the shuttle and become infected.

Beware, the Slime that didn’t Come from a Bottle

What happens when a human gets infected is that their DNA gets attacked when they are asleep, and when they awake, they retain their life form but look a bit stronger and healthier. The scary thing is, they are drained of all emotion so even if they look human, they aren’t human at all.

Carol Benell, played by Nicole Kidman, doesn’t realise how out of order the world around her is spinning into. When her patient Wendy Lenk (played by Veronica Cartwright who appeared in 1978’s version of the film) tells her that “my husband is not my husband anymore”, she looks at it from a psychiatrist’s point of view and thinks that Wendy’s deluded.

Carol goes on to let her son Oliver (Jackson Bond) stay with Tucker (Jeremy Northam), an official with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one of the first who was infected. Carol realises that Tucker isn’t exactly himself when he requests to visit Oliver, something unexpected of her divorced partner who hardly uses his visitation rights.

Tucker grabs the opportunity to infect more people in the disguise of a meeting with government officials to discuss the need to contain the virus. (After the scene you see 2 people vomiting into the coffee and tea flasks, and that’s how everyone in the room was infected.)

After this, the action escalates as Carol realises what’s wrong and goes through all means and ways possible to locate her son. Her supposedly platonic friend, Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig), who’s madly in love with her, joins her in the wild chase as she fights the infected to rescue her son.

What Worked and What Didn’t

The fact that it’s a 4th remake makes it difficult for the movie to excel. The bad thing about The Invasion is, not only did it not excel it was below average.

First of all, the movie didn’t have a climax. If it did or was supposed to, it was so mild that it was hardly noticeable. Also, pieces of slime that appeared in random places as the “body snatchers” or “spawn of the body snatchers” seemed a bit unrealistic, especially when Carol simply washed them off in a scene.

Overall, the movie was lacklustre thanks to the unrealistic plot. When the pod men (people who are infected) start vomiting at people who they want to infect, the scenes are vaguely reminiscent of Resident Evil, when all the zombies start physically attacking humans in a bid to turn them into zombies too. However, it’s more disgusting than gripping as all they do is vomit at people, unlike Resident Evil zombies who bite.

Perhaps the movie plays on one’s emotional and psychological fears, especially the innate fear that you’ll lose those dearest to you even if they’re right beside you in the cinema. With that, director Oliver Hirschbiegel made an excellent choice in choosing Nicole Kidman to be Carol Benell and Jackson Bond to be Oliver, her incredibly cute son.

From the start, Kidman and Bond showed the audience the type of relationship they share – an unbreakable mother and son relationship that no one can penetrate, not even Ben who shared an intimate kissing scene with Carol in his car (which was as far as things went because Carol stopped him after awhile). Because of the relationship that they have established, one can’t help but worry for the mother and son as they fight the contaminated to “stay clean”. And that’s the saving grace of the movie, the one thing that keeps you glued to the screen as you watch Carol Benell and Oliver fight to stick together no matter what happens.

Ratings: 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Details:

Opens: September 13

Running Time: 99 minutes

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jackson Bond, Jeremy Northam

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel