Unfortunately, in an argument at school one day, Nick provokes the wrong person. A few nights later, while he is walking home, he is run down and beaten mercilessly by three people, then left for dead.
The strange thing is, he isn’t actually dead and he finds that he can move about freely as a sort of ghost. The only catch is that nobody can see or hear him, which means that he can’t tell anyone that he is still alive. To make matters worse, he realizes that if someone doesn’t find his body soon, he’ll die for real.
After some time of attempting to communicate with different people from his life, Nick finds that a girl to whom he is intrinsically tied (played by Margarita Levieva) is the only person who can hear him. Together, they race to find his body (which has been moved by a third party) before it’s too late.
The concept of this movie is fairly original, which is a welcome change to the usual plethora of similarly themed movies that hit the market every week. It’s nice to see that some people are making an attempt to do something different.
The acting is pretty solid, though I don’t foresee any Oscar nominations. It is occasionally apparent that some of the actors in this movie are relatively new to the business, so performances can seem a bit forced and unnatural at times. This isn’t to say that the actors don’t have some really good scenes in the movie; it’s just that the acting doesn’t seem quite as consistent as the sort you find in seasoned veterans.
The DVD
The Invisible comes as a single DVD in a standard case. The cover art is attractive, with photos of the two major characters and an interestingly textured background, all in muted colors, but it’s nothing astoundingly creative.
The main menu is nicely done. The background looks like a forest at night, with rain pouring down. There is a searchlight-shaped window that moves around the screen and shows video clips from the movie. The title and menu options are superimposed over the background, and orchestral music plays to set the mood. It’s a nice lead-in to the feel of the movie.
Video is presented in widescreen format. The picture is sharp, the colors are muted, and the cinematography conveys the mood of the film quite well.
Audio is presented in Dolby 5.1 surround, which is nice, but it isn’t totally necessary for a film like this. There aren’t all that many atmospheric sounds to be heard, which means that most of the sound is coming from the front speakers. Still, it’s nice that surround was included, even if it is only utilized on occasion.
Special Features
This DVD has enough special features to keep me from complaining about a lack of them, but there really isn’t much to see.
There are 11 deleted scenes, which show parts of the story that didn’t make it into the final version of the movie. There is an optional commentary with the director and one of the writers, in case you’re interested in knowing why the scenes were cut.
Other special features include:
- audio commentary with director David S. Goyer and writer Christine Roum
- audio commentary with writer Mick Davis
- two music videos: “The Kill” by 30 Seconds to Mars, and “Taking Back Control” by Sparta
In all, the special features on this DVD really aren’t all that original; they include pretty much exactly the same types of special features as are found on many other DVDs. It would have been nice to have a featurette or two. For that reason, I’m not especially impressed.
Overall
This is one of those movies that probably won’t amass huge numbers of fans, simply because it doesn’t have enough big-name actors to attract the attention of the masses. That said, it still deserves a look if you want to see a movie that relies on story, rather than on star-power, to convey a feeling or to make a statement.
Overall: 6.5