Cold Invasion Doesn't Feel like Science-fiction as Much as Something on C-SPAN: Review of the Invasion

Starring Nicole Kidman (The Hours, The Others) and Daniel Craig (Casino Royale), among other films, The Invasion resembles previous versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in story, but not in spirit.

What is Invasion about?

A space shuttle crash lands. An extraterrestrial disease in the form of alien goo on the shuttle run amok, transforming people.

People are starting to turn zombie-like in behavior. If they go to sleep, they might wake up as unemotional alien imposters.

Psychiatrist, Carol Bennell (Kidman) and colleague, Ben Driscoll (Craig) discover the aliens' plans. They try to warn people. They try to fend off hordes of alien imposters and try to stay awake. It is in REM sleep that this disease will strike. The real question is: Can they succeed or will they become one of the aliens?

My thoughts

Once again, Hollywood is pitting the wrong actress against a dangerous and threatening fighting force. Nicole Kidman is a fine actress. She's terrific with mood swings. Can she handle an action-heroine role in the vain of Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley? No way. There were times when her action scenes really took me back to scenes in Weaver's 1986 Aliens. Compare the thrilling sequence when Ellen is driving a flaming personnel carrier down a series of a passageways with alien monsters trying to claw their way in, and then running them over in the most merciless way to a somewhat similar, less-impactful sequence in which our zombie-like alien impersonators are clamoring to get Carol in a speeding car. You'll see similarities and differences. The biggest difference is that Weaver's Ripley can handle herself in such a pinch, Kidman's Bennell is just pretending.

The tone is much different than previous versions. Is it intentional? Perhaps. Is it good or is it a bad mistake on the filmmakers' part?