Having established an effectively creepy mood in the first half, the film eventually degenerates into a muddled mess, with Nicole and Daniel Craig dodging zombies while popping amphetamines in a desperate effort to stay awake. We know how they feel.
The Invasion (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:154
Fresh:30
Rotten:124
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: The Invasion is slickly made, but it lacks psychological insight and thrills.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for violence, disturbing images and terror.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:12-10-2007
Synopsis: Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman ("The Hours") and Daniel Craig ("Casino Royale") star in the science fiction action thriller "The Invasion," a nightmarish journey into a world where the only way... Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman ("The Hours") and Daniel Craig ("Casino Royale") star in the science fiction action thriller "The Invasion," a nightmarish journey into a world where the only way to stay alive is to stay awake. The mysterious crash of the space shuttle leads to the terrifying discovery that there is something alien within the wreckage. Those who come in contact with it are changing in ominous and inexplicable ways. Soon Washington, DC psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) and her friend, Dr. Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig), learn the shocking truth about the growing extraterrestrial epidemic: it attacks its victims while they sleep, leaving them physically unchanged but strangely unfeeling and inhuman. As the infection spreads, more and more people are altered and it becomes impossible to know who can be trusted. Now Carol's only hope is to stay awake long enough to find her young son, who may hold the key to stopping the devastating invasion. "The Invasion" also stars Jeremy Northam ("The Tudors," "Gosford Park") and Jeffrey Wright ("Casino Royale," "Angels in America"). The film is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Downfall") from a screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. Joel Silver (the "Matrix" trilogy) produced the film, with Roy Lee, Doug Davison, Susan Downey, Steve Richards, Ronald G. Smith and Bruce Berman executive producing. The behind-the-scenes creative team was lead by director of photography Rainer Klausmann, production designer Jack Fisk, editors Joel Negron and Hans Funck, costume designer Jacqueline West and composer John Ottman. "The Invasion" is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production, in association with Vertigo Entertainment. "The Invasion" has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "violence, disturbing images and terror." --© Warner Bros. [More]
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Roger Rees, Jeffrey Wright, Susan Floyd, John M. Jackson, Josef Sommer, Robert Stanton, Celia Weston, Jeff Wincott
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Screenwriter: Dave Kajganich
Producer: Joel Silver
Composer: John Ottman
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for The Invasion
Kidman gives her most personality-free performance as a psychiatrist whose estranged husband (Jeremy Northam) starts behaving suspiciously by becoming a better father to his son (Jackson Bond). How spooky is that? The answer is: not even slightly.
Like the three movies before it, the only way our heroes can survive is by staying awake. Odds on you won’t.
Novelist Jack Finney's body snatchers have appeared in some fine movies, but the only disturbing-looking thing here is what they've done to Nicole Kidman's lips.
If not a train-wreck, this is certainly more than a fender-bender. In a world overflowing with targets for a satirical pasting, we needed something a lot sharper than this.
A strong, proven premise, drained of almost all feeling and personality. Hirschbiegel’s Hollywood debut sporadically grips – but like Kidman and Craig’s characters, you’ll most likely end up battling to stay awake.
Hirschbiegel's troubled remake has several good scenes and is by no means a disaster but it's ultimately disappointing thanks to poor editing and clumsy writing.
While it doesn't completely succeed at anything it tries to do, it succeeds sufficiently at most of them to be enjoyable.
The Invasion, although it does some things awfully well, assumes that you are an idiot.
This hodgepodge of thoughtful and action-filled filmmaking qualifies as a minor success. Whether this is due to or in spite of studio meddling, we may never know.
If you're going to remake a movie a third time, you'd better have a compelling reason.
A film that feels truncated, rushed, unfocused and -- worst of all -- not the slightest bit scary or suspenseful.
Unfortunately, the movie is as bland and emotionless as the humans whose DNA has been transformed.
Opting for car chases instead of the thought-provoking ideas of its predecessors, the film looks like the work of, if not pod people, folks who gave up any kind of passion for the material long before the cameras started to roll.
This movie is too impatient and out of it to express either what makes humans individual or what makes them part of a community in the new millennium.
A tightly paced, involving movie that underscores the timeless appeal of Finney's tale.
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