The Flicker

The Invasion

2007

Rated PG-13

Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Source: Own3d

Plot: Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers modernized

Acting: Emotionless and monotoned, imagine if Steven Wright ruled the world.

Special Effects: Not much but the microscopic view of the virus as it takes effect is sick!

The Skinny: An emotionless zombie? This will be right in Nicole Kidman’s wheelhouse!

Play nice Meldiana.  But yes, if you are familiar with past Flicker reflections you are aware I do have a sneaking suspicion that Nicole Kidman is indeed a cyborg. 

pictured: Nicole Kidman's acting prowess

Add the male equivalent, Mr. James Bond franchise killa Daniel Craig and we might be in for a snoozefest.  So I put on a pot of coffee and popped this mutha in…

Open to mass media hype machine.  Apparently the space shuttle Patriot during an unscheduled return landing explodes in mid-air and spreads its debris from Dallas to DC.  The CDC is called in when the local nerds discover an alien spore like substance covering the shuttle pieces.  After calling for more tests, the CDC man returns to his limo to brief the president.  As he’s walking, a local yokel steps up handing him a chunk of metal she found on her roof.  He reaches out to retrieve and cuts his finger on the sharp edge.  Oh, that can’t be good.  Then that night while deep in sleep the camera quick pans to his slumbering self and it’s not pretty.  He looks like he was sneezed on.  By the Jolly Green Giant.

Gesundheit!

The next morning we are introduced to Nicole Kidman’s character Carol and her son Oliver.  The tie in?  She is CDC guy’s ex-wife and he is calling her that morning asking to see Oliver, the son he hasn’t seen in four years.  He is, to the surprise of us, snot free and to the surprise of Carol, calm and cool.  She reluctantly agrees but not ’till after a night of trick-n-treatin’ with Mom.  Sporting a Superman costume, Oliver and friends hit the neighborhood.  At one house, inside a dog is freak barking at one of Oliver’s friends.  After the candy is collected and they are walking away, the dog escapes out the front door and makes a bee line for Oliver’s friend.  Amazingly he stands there motionless unafraid of the advancing canine.  The dog reaches him and knocks him over, jaws snapping mere inches from the boy’s face.  The kid, undisturbed simply grabs the dog’s mouth using his hands like a muzzle.  Enter frantic Mom who quickly scoops him up as Oliver and his other friends stare most likely thinking, dude I totally just pissed myself.  At home while the Moms attend to attacked boy Oliver discovers a strange piece of candy in his bag.  Actually it isn’t candy at all and looks like a flake of snot like we saw on the CDC guy.  Kidman’s Carol quickly pockets the booger for later.

Turns out her best friend, Daniel Craig’s character Ben, is a doctor and has access to crazy lab equipment.  She takes said flem flake to him and his labcoat geek buddy with intention of identification.  Ben thinks its some kind of joke but being her best friend, which is man code for I want more but you won’t sleep with me, he passes it on for testing.  What they find is alien.  Turns out this virus or spore thing attaches itself during the host’s REM sleep and transforms the brain, basically hijacking the human body.  Now, during this time the CDC guy is convincing the general public all this is is some kind of flu scare and recommends mandatory innoculations.  Of course they aren’t getting any kind of vaccine, they’re a getting a nice healthy helping of alien snot courtesy of the government.  See this is why I won’t get the flu shot people!

At this point she is second guessing her decision to drop off her son at the ex’s and decides it’s time to recollect.  The lab crew find out a local military base is aware of what’s happening and they plan to make their way there to help develop a cure.  Kidman passes instead to search for her son and I’m sure you guessed, Ben agrees to accompany her.  What ensues seems to be one long chase.  From feet to car to feet again.  The afflicted grow stronger and begin forcing anyone discovered to be sneezed on.  Our good guy group discovers that if you act like them (emotionless, cold, calm) you can fool ‘em.  Next Carol and Ben haphazardly discover a what they believe may be a cure to the alien cold. They discover that a past patient and also her son had both slept but woke up unaffected.  Apparently the thing the two have in common is a past case of encephalitis which is a disease that can affect the make up of the brain which may explain why the virus can’t hold.  During these amazing powers of deduction Ben and Carol become trapped.  Ben sacrifices himself so Carol can escape and she does end up finding Oliver again by fooling the mucus masses.  Unfortunately during their escape she gets a loogy to the face and now can not fall asleep in fear of crossing over.  While Carol and Oliver wait for Ben in a pharmacy she desperately pounds Mountain Dew in order to stay awake.  Fail.  Oliver wakes up to find his Mom snoring and delivers the bad ass moment of our flick.  He grabs a syringe seemingly full of adrenaline and plunges it into her heart.  As he slams the plunger Carol shoots up to a sitting position with the alien sickness in the beginning stages showing on her face.  Take that Mom, I just saved you!

I better get a flickin' pony for my next birthday.

In the mean time Ben finally shows up but he brings a friend.  See somewhere in his escape he must have caught a cat nap and whoops woke up acting like Mr. Rogers.  Carol and Ollie narrowly escape with a well placed bullet and find a car outside.  As they drive the labcoat from before calls her cell from a helicopter above.  They are here to rescue them but she must get to the roof of some high rise.  More car chases but this one includes a reverse clown car sequence. 

See cuz they're on the OUTSIDE of the car....oh nevermind.

Oh happy ending.  They make it to the roof and are rescued.  Back at the base labcoat develops a cure through the use of Oliver’s blood.  The military delivers the vaccine via helicopter and happily ever after.  Remember the well placed bullet and Ben?  Yeah it was in the kneecap so he gets his dream after all.  We close on the new family reading the newspaper as the world gets back to business as usual.  Yep, the headline reads of war in the middle east.  Maybe being a placid alien transportation device wasn’t all that bad.

The Verdict:

This flick is yet another film adaptation of the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers.  Maybe not as strong as the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) or as classic as the 1978 remake, surprisingly The Invasion holds it own.  I think the fact Mr. and Mrs. Robot were cast as leads helped the cause.  Both Kidman in pretending and Craig in actually being infected was very convincing.  The stoic faces, the blank stares.  Usually I would be baggin’ on them for this, but it worked quite well here.  The modern version of the snatcher story was well thought with the shuttle disaster to the flu scare with mass innoculations.  The chase sequences did seem a bit common place and the mega crowd on car part reminded me of a Matrix movie.  Turns out the studio wasn’t too happy with the first cut of this flick and ended up hiring the Wachowski brothers to rewrite and help re shoot.  So I’m guessing they might have a hand in the chase scenes.  All in all though if you liked the Body Snatcher flicks or  the idea of an alien version of the flu infecting the masses intrigues you, then I would recommend this flick.  Go in with medium pace expectations and you’ll be alright.  Just bring some Kleenex dudes, you don’t want to leave with the sniffles.

Don't hold it in, achoo might like this flick dude!