This new Invasion has the distinction of becoming more tedious...as it moves along.
And what "The Invasion" has come up with is using the current political landscape of the world as a road map for the film. Throughout the picture, references to Iraq and Darfur, Venezuelan President Chavez, AIDS, and anything else we can find in a newspaper today is thrown in. The idea--and this is where the movie will lose most of the potential audience--is that civilization crumbles when we need it the most. That humans are capable of truly horrible things. And just how worried about "status" Americans are when compared to others around the world.
It's not enough to have a Russian ambassador joke that Russian boots are no longer made in Russia (they're made in China, in case you're wondering). No, Bennell must engage the man in conversation about the role of people in a society and what that society owes to its members. We hear and, for the most part, understand the words being uttered even though they feel like just that: only words. For as many roles as Nicole Kidman can play persuasively, there are some she can't. She can do Virginia Wolff or an English mother stuck in a haunted home-- hell, even a maiden during the Civil War. But she continually strikes out as a doctor of any kind (see "The Peacekeeper"). There's something in her delivery of weighty subjects we just don't believe. Postmodern feminist that she is, the good doctor allows a patient who is terrified of her husband to go back to him. And there's no way in the world we can buy Kidman as an action star.
To make matters even worse, she can't stay in her Southern accent for any prolonged period of time. It comes and goes from scene to scene--sometimes inside the same scene. There is no logical reason for her to talk like she's from "Cold Mountain" and then switch to "Days of Thunder." Except, of course, if no one was paying attention.
The actual body of the film--the quest tale, essentially--works just fine. It doesn't try to make too much sense either in the context of the movie or in any real-world situation. There's some medical babble between Kidman and on-screen paramour Daniel Craig (playing one of the most unconvincing medical doctors committed to film) about who can be immune to the virus. Chicken pox comes up somewhere in the conversation, a list of drugs, some acronym which stands for something the government of the United States can't pin down, yet James Bond and the ex-Mrs. Tom Cruise can put together in three minutes. Yeah, okay. And that's one of the reasons it works: from the crash of Patriot, we're told to sit back, be quiet and don't ask any questions.
Like how do the people on the metro know to tell Carol what to do? (They can't possibly all see she is sweating.) Why doesn't she stock up on weapons at any opportunity? Why break up a group of four survivors, allowing Ben (Craig) to go off on his own little adventure we never get to see? Why make the US government out to be a bunch of idiots? And why, for the love of good storytelling, lurch into an epilogue without filling in the rest of the story?
I've done little else but rail against "The Invasion" from the very beginning of this review. I may be painting the wrong picture. It's not blowing anyone's socks off nor is it reinventing the genre. What it turns out to be is enjoyable. A diversion that wants us to think--just not too hard because we'd out-think the plot, I suspect. The premise seems psychologically sound on the surface: take away human emotions and we will live as one, without wars and hate, anger and bigotry. The aliens, for lack of a better word, aren't necessarily evil; they want to help. But they do it in the complete wrong way.
Much has been made about "The Invasion" being delayed for a year, re-shoots, new writers and director and on-set accidents. If there is another version out there (and I strongly suspect there is), it should be seen (much like the two versions of "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist"). This is the action-oriented story; where is the more cerebral one in which there are lengthy discussions about the nature of emotions? Some of the pieces of that film are evident--Carol's profession, the relatively minor role her ex-husband plays, scenes at a military base and mentions of the President, for example.
"The Invasion" isn't a rock 'em, sock 'em action spectacle like typical summer blockbusters. It dares us, on some level, to think. Again, not too hard or too deeply . . . just enough to scratch the surface, to get our own problem-solving juices flowing. If we take emotion out of the equation, what kind of world would we live in? The film is certainly not a disaster, but it's ultimately disappointing because there is a more meaningful plot just under the surface. No one knew how to find it.
Jason's film rating: 6/10
Video:
Since this is an HD DVD and DVD Combo disc, the high-def version is on one side and the standard-def version on the other. Let's start with the SD video, which is mostly pretty good. The screen size is 1.85:1, which surprises me somewhat. I had thought that with a relatively big-budget film like this one, Warner Bros. would have exhibited it in a wider ratio, but it was not the case. The high bit rate and the anamorphic transfer help to bring out the colors nicely, and definition is adequate for an SD release. However, be aware that object delineation is still soft even by SD standards, despite Warners' best intentions in bringing the picture to the small screen. There is only a small degree of natural film grain present, yet the image seems slightly gritty, so even though the video looks good, it's not the best you'll see.
The 1080-resolution, high-definition reproduction is, understandably, an improvement over the SD transfer. In bright, outdoor scenes, the colors shine vividly, and definition is fairly sharp. Close-ups, especially, look good. Facial tones vary, though, from realistically perfect to oddly yellow or overly pink. In darker scenes, and there are plenty of them, the natural print grain is more clearly noticeable than ever, which helps create texture at times and simply annoys at others. And medium and long shots can be either sharply defined or relatively soft. I never had a chance to see this picture in a theater, so I cannot say if that's how the director intended it or not.
Audio:
On the standard-definition side, we get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that does much to bring the movie's suspense to the fore, especially in its use of the surrounds for the eerie transformation noises. In fact, in the movie's beginning, there are surround effects all over the place; however, for whatever reason they tend to diminish as the film goes on and then pick up again toward the end. There is also a terrific dynamic impact, again diminishing as the film goes on; a deep, clean bass response; and a smooth, realistic midrange. In all, it's a good but not outstanding soundtrack.
On the high-definition side, we get Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Interestingly, I believe this is the first Warners HD DVD I've encountered that has only a THD track and no DD+. I suppose WB figure that by now most folks have upgraded their HD DVD players for THD, and the DD+ is no longer necessary. Besides, the exclusion of the DD+ track frees up more space on the disc for high-def extras. In any case, the bass response will again knock the walls down, even if it varies from one part of the movie to another; the dynamics appear even stronger than before, punctuated by taut, solid impact; and the midrange and surround effects are clearer than before. For the most part, this THD audio represents a typically good, modern movie soundtrack on disc.
Extras:
I can't say I liked much about the extras here, which are duplicated on both sides of the disc except that on the high-def side they're, well, all in high def. The problem is that all the items seem alike to me, and WB could have easily combined them into one, longer documentary. First up, there's an eighteen-minute segment called "We've Been Snatched Before," which covers some behind-the-scenes stuff and the original movie version of Jack Finney's novel. Then, there is a trio of three-minute featurettes, "The Invasion: A New Story," "The Invasion: On the Set," and "The Invasion: Snatched," none of them much more than glorified promos. Things conclude with twenty-seven scene selections but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. On the HD side, there are also bookmarks, a guideline of elapsed time, a zoom-and-pan feature, and pop-up menus.
Parting Shots:
This new "Invasion" has the distinction of becoming more tedious, rather than more exciting, as it moves along. That's just one of its major shortcomings compared to the two older film versions (1956 and 1978) of the same story. Although "The Invasion" is not a bad movie by any means, it doesn't stand the inevitable comparisons to the earlier films, which were far more gripping than this one all the way through. I suppose the smart thing to do, then, if you haven't seen the two older films is to watch them first. After that, venture out into the new territory of "The Invasion." Certainly, the high-definition transfer doesn't do it any harm, and the Combo format allows for flexibility.
It's not enough to have a Russian ambassador joke that Russian boots are no longer made in Russia (they're made in China, in case you're wondering). No, Bennell must engage the man in conversation about the role of people in a society and what that society owes to its members. We hear and, for the most part, understand the words being uttered even though they feel like just that: only words. For as many roles as Nicole Kidman can play persuasively, there are some she can't. She can do Virginia Wolff or an English mother stuck in a haunted home-- hell, even a maiden during the Civil War. But she continually strikes out as a doctor of any kind (see "The Peacekeeper"). There's something in her delivery of weighty subjects we just don't believe. Postmodern feminist that she is, the good doctor allows a patient who is terrified of her husband to go back to him. And there's no way in the world we can buy Kidman as an action star.
To make matters even worse, she can't stay in her Southern accent for any prolonged period of time. It comes and goes from scene to scene--sometimes inside the same scene. There is no logical reason for her to talk like she's from "Cold Mountain" and then switch to "Days of Thunder." Except, of course, if no one was paying attention.
The actual body of the film--the quest tale, essentially--works just fine. It doesn't try to make too much sense either in the context of the movie or in any real-world situation. There's some medical babble between Kidman and on-screen paramour Daniel Craig (playing one of the most unconvincing medical doctors committed to film) about who can be immune to the virus. Chicken pox comes up somewhere in the conversation, a list of drugs, some acronym which stands for something the government of the United States can't pin down, yet James Bond and the ex-Mrs. Tom Cruise can put together in three minutes. Yeah, okay. And that's one of the reasons it works: from the crash of Patriot, we're told to sit back, be quiet and don't ask any questions.
Like how do the people on the metro know to tell Carol what to do? (They can't possibly all see she is sweating.) Why doesn't she stock up on weapons at any opportunity? Why break up a group of four survivors, allowing Ben (Craig) to go off on his own little adventure we never get to see? Why make the US government out to be a bunch of idiots? And why, for the love of good storytelling, lurch into an epilogue without filling in the rest of the story?
I've done little else but rail against "The Invasion" from the very beginning of this review. I may be painting the wrong picture. It's not blowing anyone's socks off nor is it reinventing the genre. What it turns out to be is enjoyable. A diversion that wants us to think--just not too hard because we'd out-think the plot, I suspect. The premise seems psychologically sound on the surface: take away human emotions and we will live as one, without wars and hate, anger and bigotry. The aliens, for lack of a better word, aren't necessarily evil; they want to help. But they do it in the complete wrong way.
Much has been made about "The Invasion" being delayed for a year, re-shoots, new writers and director and on-set accidents. If there is another version out there (and I strongly suspect there is), it should be seen (much like the two versions of "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist"). This is the action-oriented story; where is the more cerebral one in which there are lengthy discussions about the nature of emotions? Some of the pieces of that film are evident--Carol's profession, the relatively minor role her ex-husband plays, scenes at a military base and mentions of the President, for example.
"The Invasion" isn't a rock 'em, sock 'em action spectacle like typical summer blockbusters. It dares us, on some level, to think. Again, not too hard or too deeply . . . just enough to scratch the surface, to get our own problem-solving juices flowing. If we take emotion out of the equation, what kind of world would we live in? The film is certainly not a disaster, but it's ultimately disappointing because there is a more meaningful plot just under the surface. No one knew how to find it.
Jason's film rating: 6/10
Video:
Since this is an HD DVD and DVD Combo disc, the high-def version is on one side and the standard-def version on the other. Let's start with the SD video, which is mostly pretty good. The screen size is 1.85:1, which surprises me somewhat. I had thought that with a relatively big-budget film like this one, Warner Bros. would have exhibited it in a wider ratio, but it was not the case. The high bit rate and the anamorphic transfer help to bring out the colors nicely, and definition is adequate for an SD release. However, be aware that object delineation is still soft even by SD standards, despite Warners' best intentions in bringing the picture to the small screen. There is only a small degree of natural film grain present, yet the image seems slightly gritty, so even though the video looks good, it's not the best you'll see.
The 1080-resolution, high-definition reproduction is, understandably, an improvement over the SD transfer. In bright, outdoor scenes, the colors shine vividly, and definition is fairly sharp. Close-ups, especially, look good. Facial tones vary, though, from realistically perfect to oddly yellow or overly pink. In darker scenes, and there are plenty of them, the natural print grain is more clearly noticeable than ever, which helps create texture at times and simply annoys at others. And medium and long shots can be either sharply defined or relatively soft. I never had a chance to see this picture in a theater, so I cannot say if that's how the director intended it or not.
Audio:
On the standard-definition side, we get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that does much to bring the movie's suspense to the fore, especially in its use of the surrounds for the eerie transformation noises. In fact, in the movie's beginning, there are surround effects all over the place; however, for whatever reason they tend to diminish as the film goes on and then pick up again toward the end. There is also a terrific dynamic impact, again diminishing as the film goes on; a deep, clean bass response; and a smooth, realistic midrange. In all, it's a good but not outstanding soundtrack.
On the high-definition side, we get Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Interestingly, I believe this is the first Warners HD DVD I've encountered that has only a THD track and no DD+. I suppose WB figure that by now most folks have upgraded their HD DVD players for THD, and the DD+ is no longer necessary. Besides, the exclusion of the DD+ track frees up more space on the disc for high-def extras. In any case, the bass response will again knock the walls down, even if it varies from one part of the movie to another; the dynamics appear even stronger than before, punctuated by taut, solid impact; and the midrange and surround effects are clearer than before. For the most part, this THD audio represents a typically good, modern movie soundtrack on disc.
Extras:
I can't say I liked much about the extras here, which are duplicated on both sides of the disc except that on the high-def side they're, well, all in high def. The problem is that all the items seem alike to me, and WB could have easily combined them into one, longer documentary. First up, there's an eighteen-minute segment called "We've Been Snatched Before," which covers some behind-the-scenes stuff and the original movie version of Jack Finney's novel. Then, there is a trio of three-minute featurettes, "The Invasion: A New Story," "The Invasion: On the Set," and "The Invasion: Snatched," none of them much more than glorified promos. Things conclude with twenty-seven scene selections but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. On the HD side, there are also bookmarks, a guideline of elapsed time, a zoom-and-pan feature, and pop-up menus.
Parting Shots:
This new "Invasion" has the distinction of becoming more tedious, rather than more exciting, as it moves along. That's just one of its major shortcomings compared to the two older film versions (1956 and 1978) of the same story. Although "The Invasion" is not a bad movie by any means, it doesn't stand the inevitable comparisons to the earlier films, which were far more gripping than this one all the way through. I suppose the smart thing to do, then, if you haven't seen the two older films is to watch them first. After that, venture out into the new territory of "The Invasion." Certainly, the high-definition transfer doesn't do it any harm, and the Combo format allows for flexibility.
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