Review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) by Tasos L — 27 Oct 2012
Sure had a snippet of an idea but just didn't know what to do with it. The science fiction aspect felt dumb, cinematography was too dying to please and the direction is confused whether to make a meaningful drama or a mindless thriller. At the end it did not please me on any department. People getting cloned from a biological pod down to their hairstyle, aliens has the technology to travel from planet to planet but could not make it from point A to B to catch a few fugitives. Overall, it was not well thought out and even badly executed.
Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is an officer from the public health department who is friends in a one-sided love with married Elizabeth (Brooke Adams). One day she announces that her husband is not the same person anymore after she brings in a strange flower she finds on the street. With a few more incidents on similar lines, Matthew takes it a bit more seriously and finds out the human beings are being replaced by Alien clones and the entire government and public services are already replaced. With him, Elizabeth, Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife being considered fugitives, they become desperate to find a way out.
One of the poorly executed science fiction movies of the time. It neither worked as sci-fi drama nor a thriller with a good central idea but a very dumb way of implementing it. The unnecessary gimmicks in photography, very loud background score, an irritating nerd of a Jeff Goldblum, poor pacing - everything about it felt wrong. Brooke Adams is very inconsistent with masterful dialogue diction at times and unnecessary screaming and whining otherwise. Donald Sutherland just looked uninterested with the whole mess happening around him. Since the script was originally written in the 50s, I don't think this version didn't seem to upgraded itself (cannot confirm since I have not seen the original) as the technology looked outdated even for its time to be a science fiction.
Clumsy, outdated, overrated, slow and dumb.
This review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) was written by Tasos L on 27 Oct 2012.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers has generally received positive reviews.
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