Movie Review: The Invasion

Starring:
Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Roger Reese

Director:
Oliver Hirschbiegel

MPAA Rating:
PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and terror.

Release Date:
August 2007

Synopsis:
In the process of researching a mysterious alien epidemic that's changing the nature of human behavior, a Washington, D.C., psychiatrist learns that her son may be the planet's only hope for survival.

My Two Cents:
Both a box office and critical failure, but I actually enjoyed The Invasion. It helps when you’re not expecting much, even if it was written by the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix) and produced by Joel Silver (Die Hard). It’s not too clever, but still creepy, exciting and it’ll make you glad to be human.

I first thing I noticed is that Nicole Kidman is still a fox. This doesn’t make the movie any better, but a whole lot more interesting to watch, for me at least. The alien organism that invades Earth, is not foxy at all. It looks more like a space loogie. Even worst, once infected, the human carrier spreads the “infection” by vomiting inside another person’s mouth. I wish I was kidding. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Once you’ve been vomited on, if you fall asleep you’ll get all covered in a snot cocoon and wake up being one of them. You won’t want to be eating nachos with cheese through this movie.

Carol Bennell (Kidman) spends most of the movie running around looking for her son, who’s father is the first human to fall pray of the aliens. Being infected herself, she must avoid falling asleep while a vaccine is made to counterattack the alien invasion. Nicole Kidman does a convincing job of playing a desperate mother, trying to blend in with the infected, and looking like she’s about to drop dead of tiredness. Her informal boyfriend Dr. Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) and his co-worker Dr. Stephen Galeano (Jeffrey Wright) struggle to come up with a vaccine and also aid Carol in retrieving her son from the aliens. Here’s an interesting trivia: Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman worked on The Invasion as well as The Golden Compass. Daniel also worked with Jeffrey Wright in Casino Royale and the kid who plays Nicole Kidman’s son is named Jackson Bond. Daniel Craig FTW!



There’s enough suspense and scary situations to keep you entertained throughout. The plot is easy to follow and the movie relies more on human emotions than nifty special effects. The aliens do have an interesting and revolutionary way of bringing order to the world. Since every infected human is controlled by the aliens, there would be no way to compete with others because there would be no others. No crime, no envy, no hate, etc. Too bad you have to lose your humanity to achieve their goal, and not all humans survive to cocoon stage. So, fuck you aliens. Go ahead and give The Invasion a rental, even if it’s just to see Nicole Kidman in a thong and see-through tank top.

Score: