Plot: What’s it about?
I’m a bit slow sometimes and about halfway through The Invasion it donned on me that the concept of this movie was vaguely familiar. Now that’s not a huge thing these days and with movie plots becoming more and more in unison, a truly original plot is kind of hard to come by. As it stands, The Invasion is a re-telling of the horror classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, but with a few liberties taken. But first, let’s discuss the casting shall we? It’s no secret that Nicole Kidman can do pretty much anything, her last venture into the horror genre was with The Others and while I thought it was overrated (in “The Sixth Sense” style), audiences and critics loved it. And then we have Daniel Craig, the newly-crowned James Bond who is all of the sudden a lot more prevalent in films these days (oddly enough, the two would re-team a few months later in The Golden Compass). A match made in heaven or box office fodder?
Kidman plays Dr. Carol Bennell, a well-to-do psychiatrist in our nation’s capital who’s trying to make her life work as a professional and a single mother. Her friendship with Doctor Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) is plutonic at best, though there are hints that both want a bit more out of their relationship. This all takes a backseat when the behaviors of everyone around them start to change. Carol’s husband (Jeremy Northam) is among the first infected and is suddenly a lot less expressive. This is a trend that continues as people stop displaying any signs of emotion and literally go about their daily lives, yet seem to resemble nothing more than zombies. As it becomes more and more evident that an epidemic is at hand, Carol’s son, Oliver (Jackson Bond), might be the only help for the planet. Things escalate and leads Carol to Baltimore where she tries to stave off going to sleep (even though infected, the change doesn’t take affect until REM sleep happens) and hopefully can help save the world.
The Invasion was a complete and utter failure at the box office. Simply put, audiences didn’t like the movie. Personally I found it entertaining, but nothing that really stood out as being memorable. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never seen any of the predecessors to this movie and I don’t think that any intimate knowledge would have helped here. Kidman is fairly decent in her role, though sometimes she’s as rigid as they come, though I could see both her and Daniel Craig’s parts being played by about anyone. The movie wasn’t really quite sure what it was supposed to be. A movie about aliens or a zombie movie. As a resident of the area, I did see a few landmarks that was interesting, but that’s about it. I highly doubt I’ll break out “The Invasion” for another viewing anytime soon, but I don’t think it was quite as bad as reviewed.
Video: How does it look?
It’s been a while since I watched the film, but after perusing my review of the Blu-ray I liked it. And with good reason. Arrow has shown they’re on par with Criterion and generally when they take a film and give it the 4K treatment, the results are favorable. The majority of it takes place in the concrete jungle of Washington D.C. (the movie was filmed on location in parts of Georgetown and Baltimore). Kidman, who usually has brilliant firey red hair, has more of a strawberry blonde thing going on here and as such, even the actors don’t seem to pop off the screen. I noticed no signs of artifacting. I’m always a fan of Nicole Kidman and certainly her mid 00’s look is her in peak form. The 4K image matches her beauty.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby TrueHD track found on the Blu-ray has been replaced by a more standard offering – a DTS HD Master Audio mix. I wasn’t overly impressed with the sound, the uncompressed mix was reasonably good. For the most part, the film is dialogue driven with some action scenes thrown in here and there for a good-sounding track. I caught the surrounds kicking in from time to time, offering some more ambiance but I’ll be darned if I can really think of a key scene in which the sound was truly memorable. Like the video, the audio is excellent, just nothing too spectacular.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The good news is that we’ve got some new supplements in addition to the paltry selection we had previously. Let’s get started.
- Audio Commentary – Film critics Andrea Subisati and Alexandra West, co-hosts of The Faculty of Horror podcast, give us their input and insight on the film. Given that these two work together, it’s a lively and informative track and one that I enjoyed. This is easily the best new supplement in the set.
- Body Snatchers and Beyond – Film scholar Alexandra Heller Nicholas gives us her .02 on the film and its correlation to Covid. Yes folks, it’s not gone (and likely never will be), but it’s an interesting premise to be sure.
- That Bug That’s Going Around – Josh Nelson, another film scholar, gives us his take on the issue as well with it being a “pandemic prophecy.” While I think that’s a bit extreme, it does bring up some interesting points.
- We’ve Been Snatched Before – We get a look at how pandemics are approached from a scientific point of view.
- The Invasion: A New Story – Some of the cast and crew dish on the film as well as their respective parts.
- The Invasion: On the Set – Some of the shooting locations are examined.
- The Invasion: Snatched – A look how at how the virus was spread in the film.
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
The Bottom Line
With Covid, The Invasion gets more of an eyebrow raise from me than it did when it hit theaters back in 2007. I’m a big fan of both leads and it was nice to revisit this. Arrow’s new transfer and supplements certainly make this one worthwhile for those that want to add it to their collection.
