Stars: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright
Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegal
Reviewed by: Victoria Alexander, Zboneman.com
Grade: C-
They found the one woman on the planet who isn't turned on by the sexy-rough Daniel Craig. If you ask me, Nicole Kidman prevented Craig from taking the movie away from her through the use of asexual sabatage (she barely glanced at him). Why not just cast Paul Giamatti if you don't want sexual chemistry on the screen?
Casting Kidman with Craig must have looked good on paper and poster, but Craig plays a very minor, uninteresting role. He mostly stands in the background. Kidman throws all her acting at her real co-star, Jackson Bond, who plays her son.
Designed as a Kidman-starring vehicle, "The Invasion" is an updated version of Don Siegel's 1956 sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But they dumped The Pod! I still say, "What happened? Did a pod take your place?" Spoiler Alert Ahead!
How did screenwriter David Kajganich ruin this classic? He, or the "they" who tinkered with it afterwards, gave "The Invasion" a happy ending! An antidote is found to the alien invasion! Everything goes back to normal – all bad alien infestation memories are erased – and all is good with the world. Such fraudulance. With 2012 soon upon us and Adam Yahiye "Azzam the American" Gadahn speaking directly to us in English, warning that we will "Allah willing - experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan, Iraq, Norbert." "The streets will run red with blood."
Carol Bennell (Kidman) is a psychiatrist separated for four years from her husband. She is raising their son Oliver (Bond) alone. Carol has a platonic relationship with a very desirable doctor, Ben Driscoll (Craig (Bond)). Her unhappy marriage has distanced her from happiness and sex with Doc McDreamy. When Oliver brings home a weird living tissue, they give it to Ben's hospital technician Galeano (Jeffrey Wright). Since the tech is tapped in, he tells them it is not a vigilant form of the flu but something far more sinister.
The "flu virus" turns people into complacent zombies with a Universal Mind. (Can Warners afford a King's Ransom - that storyline is straight from the Cell.)
Carol's estranged husband Tucker Kaufman (Jeremy Northam) turns up. He just happens to be a Centers for Disease Control doctor who already has been "turned." He vomits goo over a hysterical Carol. Husbands. Honestly. Now, as you all know, if Carol falls asleep she will become a part of the hive – emotionless, quiet, and part of the Universal Mind. She does not want to be part of the One. Due to a previous medical situation, Oliver is immune and holds the key to an antidote. They go on the run with Ben's help because suddenly Carol starts screaming how much she loves him. When did that happen - she's yet to glance his way?
According to all New Age philosophy and Mellen-Thomas Benedict's Near-Death Experience, we are all directly connected to The Source of Everything. We are part of the Higher Self Matrix. We are connected, as Benedict experienced firsthand, "as one being, all humans are connected as one being, we are actually the same being, different aspects of the same being." I'm definitley paying way too much for health insurance.
"The Invasion" says no to this. Stay human with all the bloodthirsty reptilian drives. Rage into that fuzzy gray ameoba. And after the antidote is given to Carol and Ben? They become a robotic happy family!
Perhaps original director Oliver Hirschbiegel had another perspective in mind that questioned alien conformity vs. human individuality. But in today's movie market, another team was brought in to create car crashes and hysteria. Kidman, tall, ethereally thin, and wearing only standard gray, leaves her shrink's sensible demeanor and becomes a crazy nut. Even when told how to behave – stay emotionless and do not run – what does she do? She runs like crazy without her handbag. That Stepford (Scientology) fallout never ends.