DVD Review: “The Invasion” * 1/2
Nicole Kidman hides from the agent who signed her up for “The Invasion,” “The Golden Compass,” “Bewitched,” “Margot at the Wedding”…
What a mess. “The Invasion” was supposed to be a philosophical take on Jack Finney’s 1955 novel “The Body Snatchers,” which had previously been made into films in 1956, 1978 and 1993. Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of the superb “last days of Hitler” film “Downfall,” seemed like a perfect choice. But when the completed film did not play like an Xbox game, producer Joel Silver had Larry and Andy Wachowski (“The Matrix”) rewrite half the film, and their protege, James McTeigue, direct some slam-bang action scenes.
Viewers can see all the stitches: A tsunami of exposition sets up the plot, in which a virus piggybacks on the space shuttle and turns the infected into conformed, emotion-free automatons. Dr. Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) starts noticing that everyone around her is zombified, and it’s up to Carol and fellow physician Ben (Daniel Craig) to stay awake, avoid the body snatchers and protect the last few sentient people around them.
But the competing visions do not serve “The Invasion” well. Meditative scenes collide with frenetically edited, adrenaline-overdosed monstrosities. Someday, Hirschbiegel’s original might see the light of day. But in its current form, “The Invasion” feels as if its mind was stolen.
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