The trouble with remaking a movie rich in the political and social allegory of the time it was made in is that you have to find a way to repurpose that subtext in your new version. Perhaps this is where The Invasion, remake of the thrice lensed sci-fi flick The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, went so horribly wrong enough that a new director and production team was brought in to “salvage” it. To be fair, the 2007 incarnation does have a lot of ideas, and that’s a good thing, but they fail to coalesce into a working, or workable, film.



This invasion begins with a shuttle crash that spreads contaminated debris from Dallas to Washington D.C. A psychiatrist named Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) begins to notice that the behaviour of people is getting a little out of whack, either getting really, really unemotional or going full-blown, cock-eyed crazy. Not the least among the strangeness is Carol’s ex-husband (Jeremy Northam), a high-ranking CDC official, who’s really the architect for the spread of the alien, mind-controlling virus. Soon Carol and a small group of malcontent scientists are the only ones left uninfected, but Carol’s son may hold the key to finding a cure to the virus.



This was supposed to be the English-language debut for director Oliver Hirschbiegel, the filmmaker behind the recent Academy Award nominee Downfall. But when test screenings apparently made studio chiefs believe that The Invasion was more like The Blandvasion, producer Joel Silver called in the Wachowski Brothers to punch up the action. Frankly, its kind of obvious where the Wachowskis come in and when the editing scissors come out. Meanwhile, all along the periphery of the film though are shades of a big idea movie. The action is unquestionably cool, but Body Snatchers is a franchise known for its big brains (figurative), and when the action roles, the social commentary, such as it is, stops.



And that’s too bad because like I said, all along the outside of the film’s main story is the makings of what could have been a really complicated and engaging movie. Different remarks at different times demonstrate the versatility of the movie’s themes, from the over prescription of psychiatric medication to fundamental violence inherent in human nature. In the background are great, little flourishes of possibility, scenes of world peace breaking out all over, a US withdrawal in Iraq, and a less pig-headed George W. Bush meeting with Hugo Chavez. Unfortunately, things tend to play out more like a zombie movie then anything else and even then, things don’t even get as gory as they should.



The actors are fairly good, but are not necessarily breaking themselves into a terror sweat. Kidman looks good running around in high heels, but I can’t imagine that there was anything to this job more taxing then that. Of course, Kidman also has her tremendous star presence working for her, but she finds a match in Daniel Craig who’s every bit as magnetic and engaging to watch playing the heroic doctor friend as he is playing England’s favourite super spy.



Ultimately, I think that The Invasion is entertaining enough to be diverting, but it’s woefully deficient in the area of subtext and subtlety. If you can live with that then this invasion is an effective way to kill and hour and a half. But for fans of hardcore sci-fi this will have too fast, be too flashy and is no where near a satisfying meal enough to justify getting out of the house and up to the movie theatre.