Review of The Invasion (2007) by Steven N — 30 Aug 2009

What a mess. Let me start off with this review by saying that you would be better served picking up the seventies version of this story "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with Leonard Nimoy and Donald Sutherland, because this version of the Jack Finney novel is a complete and total disaster.

If you don't already know the basic story an alien ship crashes to Earth and infects people with a virus that causes them to change into something other than they are when the fall into REM sleep.

There is a whole lot wrong with this one. Sometimes it's an action film, sometimes it's horror, it's never really quite sure what it wants to be. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if in fact it was doing either of them well.

.. which it isn't. Nicole Kidman is flatter than Earth according to early sailors. Daniel Crag is more wooden than Pinocchio only moments after being assembled. The story is more spastic and all over the place than a kid with ADD who just polished off a cup of coffee, a box of Nerds candy, and a five hour marathon of Grand Theft Auto.

The film apparently had a whole heck of a lot of problems during production and a good deal of that is quite unfortunately coming across on the screen. I'll give the movie credit for (at the very least) giving us a sort of new spin on the ending, but that's all it's getting from me.

My advice? Don't bother. There are other, much better versions of this story out there and you would be advised to check out one of them instead.