The Invasion (2007)

Film review #696

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

SYNOPSIS: After a space shuttle crashes onto Earth, a mysterious infection starts spreading among the population that renders them emotionless and changes them. Carol is a psychologist who is trying to find her Son, taken by his father, who she believes to be immune from the infection, and plans to get him to safety before the infected get a hold of him…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Invasion is a 2007 sci-fi thriller film based on the novel The Body Snatchers (which inspired the famous Invasion of the Body Snatchers film, although The Invasion is more of a fresh adaptation than a remake). The film centres around Carol (Nicole Kidman), a psychologist who tries to find and keep her Son, Oliver safe after an infection from space is turning people into emotionless beings. Oliver is taken by her ex-husband Tucker, who happens to be the CDC chief, and who after he becomes infected himself, spreads the disease under the pretence of a flu vaccine. With the help of Dr. Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig), Carol realises that Oliver is immune to the infection, and goes to rescue him and get him to safety, where scientists can develop a vaccine from his cells. While The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is well-known as one of the definitive sci-fi thrillers, this alternative adaptation really fails to deliver anything of interest or depth. The film is able to create some tension when carol is walking around pretending to be infected and restraining any signs of emotion, but it never develops into anything more substantial. As such, the entire film is just a lot of running about that never really goes anywhere.

Any exploration of the themes that the story brings up are notably absent, despite clearly presenting multiple opportunities to do so. The parasite works by take over people’s bodies, and bereft of emotion, it leads to conflict all over the world ceasing; you might wonder if the world would be a better place with the parasite in control then, but the film barely follows through with any kind of reflection on the topic. Likewise, Carol’s role as a psychologist could shed an interesting perspective on what is happening to people, but it just doesn’t. This film was subject to three directors and two re-edits and reshoots, so any original intent has been mixed up and washed out by too many creative hands. The reshoots also, at the studio’s behest, added in action scenes, which again really draw focus away from anything interesting, and we’re just left with bland car chases for the trailers. The ending too, in which everything just goes back to normal makes the whole endeavour feel a bit pointless. The Invasion feels like a waste of good talent, with no clue about what to do with the source material. Watch one of the other Invasion of the Body Snatchers films instead.