The moment of truth comes about an hour into “The Invasion,”where the stuff really hits the fan. The movie has built a paranoid, dreadfullyscary environment filled with terrified people veiling their humanity whilestrange alien hybrids walk among them. With every robotic stare and strangelyoffbeat phrase, the infected began to weigh as heavily as on my chest as thecharacters in the film. The conflict in each scene kept raising the bar higherand it became evident that the wave of tension had to break soon.
And then it did. The film erupted into frantic chases,fast-paced action scenes and picked up a tone of survival horror not unlike amodern zombie movie. Though well directed and at least somewhat realistic (I’mhappy to see that someone in Hollywood realizes that a car on fire doesn’t HAVEto explode), these scenes turn the suspenseful mood of “Invasion” on its head.
Will the real script please stand up?
The quizzical turnaround started to make sense once Ilearned that writers Andy and Larry Wachowski and director James McTeigue (ofthe Matrix Trilogy fame) were brought on to “improve” the script. Afterwatching the Matrix mythology spiral into mediocrity amid over-the-top CGIbattles and rambling, unfocused plot (warning, you will be knocked over thehead with the symbolic tour de force of the “War, crime, hate – though bad,without these we are not human” shtick that reminds me of the rambling“Merovingian” speech from the Matrix Reloaded), it’s not surprising theWachowski brothers had a hand in “The Invasion.” Though I can’t confirm withouta doubt the Wachowskis are to blame, but precedent to me shows otherwise.
While I wouldn’t say the movie’s cheery concluding chapterswere bad (though the coda is chock full of the cliché and campy), justdefinitely different from what I was expecting. Don’t let the out of sortsending make you stray from The Invasion. This movie reaches levels of subtlesuspense and agonizing anticipation that strikes a far different chord forflicks in this era of torture heavy masochist horror films.
As much as people like to complain about Nicole Kidman andher “porcelain doll” or “robotic” performance, I enjoyed Kidman as she quicklyswitched gears from jaded psychiatrist to joyful mother to insomniacsurvivalist. In some ways I think Kidman’s quiet performance in the early goingof the movie (Kidman plays a psychiatrist so there is a bit of listeninginvolved) absorbed me further and forced me to focus on the creepy goings-oninstead of the star of the film. Thankfully “The Invasion’s” main charactershows signs of intelligence, something rare in modern horror. I wasn’t leftheckling “Why did she do that / why didn’t she do that?” at ever twist and turnthat came through the story.
The rest of the cast was fairly unremarkable (not bad, butnot great either), save for Daniel Craig’s (Casino Royale, L4yer Cake)performance as Kidman’s doctor acquaintance. The romantic tension between thetwo is fairly strong and Craig comes across as a good everyman hero type in thesecond half of the movie.
This film looks and sounds like an above average releaseonto DVD. Though the sound shies away from a beefy DTS track in favor of DolbyDigital, the surround effects are well done and thankfully the dialogue isalways crystal clear. Though I didn’t notice any overdramatic edge enhancementor the typical grain in the movie’s many nighttime scenes, the movie does havea charcoal tint to it for the most part. This was most likely a choice of thedirector, so don’t be shocked by it. It’s subtle, but if taken the wrong way Icould see some complaining.
As for extras, the disc runs a little thin. This disc comeswith paltry five minute features featuring shots from the same single pressconference and brief interviews with cast members amid clips from the film. Allin all, it doesn’t go into much more detail on the story than the first 30minutes do. With no commentary track available and sparse “documentaries,” thespecial features are passably interesting once but definitely won’t be the drawfor repeat viewers of this package. What did draw repeat runs with this viewerwas the short featurette on the disgusting special effects involved in creatingthe projectile vomit which the aliens use to infect their hosts. Other thansome entertaining gross outs, you can probably just skim this section of thedisc.
Overall: 6.5 – Average