*** May contain spoilers ***
SHODDY SNATCHERS
Jezzac from ,
21st February, 2010
OVERVIEW: Much as the viewer can watch a new zombie film and see it as a curate's egg, interested in what differentiates it from previous zombie flicks, and what new twists to zombie-lore the film provides, so too, with the slightly slimmer 'body-snatcher' genre. Unfortunately, since we last visited the body-snatch (Ferrara's 'Body Snatchers' or at a push 'The Astronaut's Wife') ouvre, the conspiracy-theory view of society has become mainstream. From the internet fueled 911/New World Order obsession through to the Jack Bauer '24' world of no one been what they seem, the viewer is used to questioning both government and the guy who's always had your back. Consequently a lot of the standard Body Snatcher tricks are now 'old hat' and so I was hopeful that the film's title 'The Invasion' might mean that the film would distance itself from its source novel. Instead we are offered the same basic plot-beats of previous body-snatcher films: 1. nutty conspiracy freak warns you that 'they're coming' 2. group scenes of silent, staring, unsmiling public leads protagonist to become a similar nutty conspiracy freak themselves 3. protagonist in peril as sleep almost takes hold 4. reunited with your co-star you suddenly realise they've been 'body-snatched'. POSITIVES: The only thing that gives the film it's final half-star is its ending, that follows the 'body-snatch' trend of been as different to previous endings, and like-it-or-not has the germ of a new idea about it. NEGATIVES: Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman do nothing wrong but you don't feel they're remotely stretched. A bizarre predisposition for over-the-top car stunts weighs the film down and makes you feel it was shot mainly on one street. The child actors have those strange bowl-cut hairstyles enforced, doubtlessly, by their pushy moms trying to recapture a 70's Laurel Canyon drive. TRIVIA: The next 'Body Snatchers' re-make is to be released 2021 and is simply titled 'Of The' to make it seem 'more punchy'.
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