When it isn't being clumsily placed in the foreground, much of this philosophical questioning is shoved out of the way in favor of more conventional action setpieces and suspense.
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
A huge mess of celluloid that, frankly, never should have made it past the "Hey let's do BODY SNATCHERS again!" stage.
It falls far short as an effective sci-fi thriller, not to mention the brainy political allegory it's determined to be.
'The Invasion': Oliver Hirschbiegel's take on Jack Finney's classic story is subtly political, commenting ever so slyly on the apathy and indifference - and the lack of empathy and compassion - that have taken over since 9/11, as well as the sense of enti
This is a by the numbers production, made with about as much emotion and passion as one of the alien made clones.
With her line-free mask of a face and unflappable demeanor, Nicole Kidman is an odd standard-bearer for the messy imperfection of the human race; even so, this fourth movie incarnation of Jack Finney's novel is hardly a disaster...
a disjointed mess, part art-house melodrama, part Hollywood action flick.
This is a film that is pretty good until it turns bad. In the last twenty minutes the film goes terribly sour as it metamorphoses into another mindless action film.
There are no pods to be found here, other than the one off-screen into which the better judgments of most involved here must have been stuffed. If Nicole Kidman doesn't watch out, she'll awake to find her career replaced by Meg Ryan's.
Wall-to-wall stiffness runs rampant in this latest take on Jack Finney's oft-filmed 'Body Snatchers yarn.
This film had a promising storyline but as the invasion takes over the community it slowly looses ground.
The Invasion is almost too muddled to be truly bad, as if everyone involved hoped that a bunch of half-assed potential ideas could add up to an even passable real one.
What once seemed a foolproof concept -- people suddenly changing into soulless pods -- has now been reduced to yet another exercise in political finger-pointing.
The alien-engineered change that threatens humans is no longer a matter of pods that enclose victims while they sleep, but a virus-like "highly resilient organism," transmitted through body fluids%u2014most grotesquely, glutinous, sticky phlegm.
A sometimes cerebral, serious movie with some pretty preposterous action grafted onto it. It's at best an uneven mix.
There are a lot of challenging elements in The Invasion, but ultimately, the movie is a bit too easy on them, itself, and the audience.
I realize horror remakes are with us for good, but maybe four and out is a good philosophy for anyone considering yet another Body Snatcher film.
If Kidman keeps making films that pull in an opening weekend equivalent to 33% of what she gets paid to star in them, even the Church of Scientology might start to look good.
Don't join The Hive. Don't become part of The Universal Mind. Stay a violent human with your own selfish agenda.
There’s much to recommend here. But there are too many inconsistencies.
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