The Invasion (2008, DVD)

I have enjoyed most of the movies that I have seen Nicole Kidman in and I am usually willing to give her movies a chance. I thought that The Invasion had potential when I saw trailers for it. I was only recently able to see the movie after finally renting it. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the potential.

The space shuttle Patriot exploded when it reentered the atmosphere to land and debris was scattered all across the country. Tucker Kaufman, who worked for the CDC, became infected when a young girl came up to him and handed him a piece of the shuttle. Once Tucker went to sleep, the alien organism that was on the shuttle fragment took over his body.

Dr. Carol Bennell, a psychiatrist, was worried about that fact that her ex-husband Tucker had decided to suddenly show back up and demand to spend time with their son Oliver after four years. One of Carol s patients, Wendy, was talking about how her husband wasn t her husband anymore and was acting completely out of character. After trick or treating, Carol discovered a strange substance that she took to Dr. Ben Driscoll, another doctor she had been dating. While tests were run with the help of another doctor, Stephen, the country seemed to be suffering from a flu epidemic. Carol, Ben, and Stephen discovered that something very different was going on and they set out to find a way to protect themselves and stay awake.

The Invasion actually started off by showing Carol from later in the movie, rummaging through a pharmacy, desperate to find medicine and caffeine filled drinks to stay awake. Only a few minutes of that was shown before jumping backwards to the coverage of what happened with the space shuttle and how Tucker was contaminated. Other little flashbacks were used at times, like when Carol was getting ready for breakfast and saw court papers, she remembered back to Tucker calling out of the blue wanting to spend time with Oliver. A few other little flashbacks were used later in the movie as well. They did help to share more information that was useful, but the way they were used did disrupt the overall flow of the movie. Maybe part of the issues I had with the way things were presented had to do with the fact that the studio had massive reshoots done. The reshoots were directed by James McTeigue instead of Oliver Hirschbiegel. I'm thinking that is why certain things seemed to be so out of place.

There was no real sense of how much time was passing for most of The Invasion or exactly when a few things happened in the chronological order of events. It really wasn t made clear if Tucker had decided to reestablish the relationship with Oliver before or after he was contaminated. It also wasn t clear how long had passed between when Tucker first talked to Carol about that and when Oliver actually went to spend time with him. Once Oliver was with Tucker, then it was clearer about how much time was passing. The majority of important events happened after Olive was with Tucker. It also wasn t clear how much time was passing as the invasion spread. It could have been days, weeks, or even a month or more. That was a minor thing, but I do think it would have been better to know how long it was taking for the invasion to spread.

I had thought that The Invasion would be a suspenseful movie from the trailers I had seen. Unfortunately, it really wasn t. There were a few moments here and there that did add some suspense, but I didn t feel like the overall tone of the movie was that suspenseful. There was a slow build up before anything really suspenseful happened. It was necessary to take time to introduce the characters and set up the situation, but it just didn t seem to have been handled in the best way. There were just little bursts of moments that were interesting or suspenseful. Even with those things, I still felt like most of what happened was predictable overall. Part of that is probably because there have been previous movies that have had basically the same plot with just minor differences here and there. Even most of the scenes that were supposed to be suspenseful were just showing Carol pretending to already be changed so she could get to Oliver. Once a resolution was shared, it did seem just a bit too simple.

The Invasion wasn t an action packed movie. There was only a small amount of action added later in the movie, mainly from a car chase that went way past the point of believability. I remember hearing about there being an accident while filming a sequence involving a car sometime in 2007, so I believe the car chase was added during the reshoots. It did make sense at that point in the movie for there to be a chase given what was happening, but it didn t completely fit in with the earlier tone of the movie either. The car chase was basically it for action, though there was a little bit of shooting once or twice and a few other minor confrontations as well. There really wasn t much violence in the movie, though there were some gross things shown, usually in connection with how the invading alien organism took over. The minor amount of violence and gross things caused the movie to be rated PG-13.

The Invasion established that Carol and Ben had known each other for a while before everything started happening. At first, it really wasn t really clear if they were just friends or if they were dating. It was only a bit later in the movie that it became clear that they were involved in a more personal relationship. Their relationship really wasn t developed enough at all even though it wasn t a major element of the movie. There were no sex scenes, but it was made clear that he spent the night at one point. They were only shown kissing once or twice, so people that don t like to see sex scenes in a movie shouldn t be bothered by this movie.

Carol was the main character and the most developed. Even being the most developed character, she really didn t receive enough development. She cared about her patients and dearly loved her son. She was a bit protective of him. She didn t want to keep Oliver from his father, but she was concerned about how the recent changes would impact him. She did seem like a nice woman. Nicole Kidman was fine in the part. I have enjoyed many of her other movies much more.

Ben was a doctor who was dating Carol and that was really about all that was shared about him. He seemed nice and he did seem concerned about Oliver as well. It wasn t shared how he and Oliver got along. Daniel Craig was fine in the part even though his part really wasn t that big. I enjoyed his performance in Casino Royale much more. Oliver seemed like a nice kid. He was smart enough to realize that some weird things were going on. Jackson Bond handled the part well without making Oliver whiney or annoying.

Tucker was a very flat, one-dimensional character. He was barely shown before he was changed, so the audience never really gets a sense of what type of person he really was. Jeremy Northam was fine in the part. Wendy, one of Carol s patients, only turned up very briefly. She knew something was very wrong with her husband. It did seem like a waste of Veronica Cartwright since she had so little to do. Stephen was another doctor and friend of Ben s. I m not sure if he had known Carol before things started happening or not. I think Stephen just did research, but I could be wrong. Jeffrey Wright did fine with what he had to work with. He also made a small appearance with Craig in Casino Royale. Several other characters were briefly around without doing much of anything or being that important.

Main Cast

Jackson Bond - Oliver
Veronica Cartwright - Wendy
Daniel Craig - Ben Driscoll
Nicole Kidman - Carol Bennell
Jeremy Northam - Tucker
Jeffrey Wright - Stephen

Oliver Hirschbiegel - Director

DVD Information

I recently rented The Invasion on DVD. The copy I rented had the widescreen version of the movie. I have no idea if there is also a full screen version. There was a documentary called We ve Been Snatched Before: Invasion in Media History and three featurettes. I didn t take the time to watch any of them.

The Invasion turned out to be much less interesting and suspenseful than I had hoped it would be. There was a decent cast, but most of them ended up with very little to do. This is really only for die hard fans of Kidman or Craig and even those people end up disappointed.

Nicole Kidman Reviews
Batman Forever ~ Bewitched ~ Birthday Girl ~ Cold Mountain ~ Dead Calm ~ Happy Feet ~ The Interpreter ~ Malice ~ Moulin Rouge ~ Moulin Rouge Soundtrack ~ The Others ~ Practical Magic ~ The Stepford Wives (2004) ~ To Die For ~