The Invasion |
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| Kashif Ahmed, 27 Mar 2008 |
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| Slick, though not entirely successful, take on the old body snatchers tale which sees Nicole Kidman as a frantic mother trying to save her son from aggressive alien assimilators who're pacifying the Earth at an alarming rate, in German auteur Oliver Hirschbiegel's ('Downfall') troubled, but nonetheless intriguing, Hollywood debut. Marked with the cuts & bruises of studio intervention, albeit ones inflicted by 'Warner Bros' most reliable, if unlikely, hatchet men; living legends the Wachowski brothers and 'V: For Vendetta' director James McTeague. 'The Invasion' is a thoughtful, smooth and sophisticated sci-fi dragged kicking and screaming into Joel Silver's world of high-octane thrills & car chases; it's the cinematic equivalent of asking Yehudi Menuhin to smash his violin and beat up the front row orchestra after a masterly rendition of Elgar's Cello concerto in E minor. Hirschbiegel's work-in-progress picture raises some good moral dilemmas; the most obvious being that would society be willing to sacrifice emotion for peace, or would we be so far gone that the basic concept of what had been achieved, would elude us? I loved the satirical conceit of depicting the corporate media as pre-victim drones, literally ingesting & essentially regurgitating the vitriol of infected politicos; though the assimilation effects aren't that good, in fact, it probably would've been better if they'd just wrapped the drone's faces with cling film instead designing of some complex CGI that ends up looking like cling film. Nicole Kidman puts in a good performance, Jeremy Northam is effectively menacing as her ex-husband (now an alien) Daniel Craig is a bit of bore and Jeffery Wright provides solid support in an exposition heavy role. And though I liked the literal Goya reference of the sleep of reason bringing monsters (i.e. our reluctance to face the horrors inflicted upon us by the powers that be) 'The Invasion' is simply begging for a director's cut: one which highlights its key point of differentiation being humanity's filter to separate the wheat from the chaff. A few minor alterations to the movie's structure is bound to make all the difference, and will surely reinvent this film as a defining landmark in modern sci-fi, up there with the likes of 'Blade Runner' and 'Solaris'. Watch this space. |
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