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Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #29 in Movie
- Released on: 2008-02-12
- Running time: 100 minutes
Customer Reviews
Nearly Deplotted, We Are Gatthered Here Today...
This version of Jack Finney's book Invasion of the Body Snatchers had some promise, but ultimately missed the opportunity. Apparently the studio didn't like the cut director Oliver Hirschbiegel delivered. My suspicion is that the original film, which was completed in 2006, was probably more coherent. The Wachowski brothers were hired for massive rewriting and James McTeigue directed the new scenes. The result is a film that takes an unexpected turn for the worse.
What's new in this rendition is that the victims of the alien virus aren't replaced by duplicates. Instead, the virus just acts within their own bodies, changing them so that they act as one organism-- we're talking a slightly nicer version of the borg from Star Trek. The idea of a more benevolent invader would have been a fresh interesting take and was where this movie was headed before the hack job. It would have been more insidiously delightful to explore the cost benefit analysis of succumbing to the invasion. No more wars, cruelty, and poverty on one side, while the stripping of a lot of what makes us human on the other-- also the collective vs. the individual. This probably would have come closer to Don Siegel's communist cold war scare overtones in the original movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Instead the movie moves to more action sequences of fighting against a overtly hostile threat. This is where the original idea gets abandoned and the movie loses its way.
All of the actors put in decent performances here including an admirable job by Nicole Kidman in the lead role, Daniel Craig as her love interest (an excellent new James Bond by the way), a very good cameo from Veronica Cartwright (in the 1978 remake Body Snatchers), Jeremy Northam as the somewhat creepy ex-husband, and Jeffrey Wright as the scientist.
I think the studio should take the blame for dooming a film that had some potential. It's still an enjoyable watch and worth a rental, especially for alien invasion enthusiasts. I don't think I've ever seen a more equally distributed range of opinion by reviewers (from one to five stars). Where it all tallies out is about where I'd put it... 3 stars.
P.S. Although lesser known than Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jack Finney wrote a couple of great books on time travel (From Time to Time and Time and Again) as well as several short stories. They go well beyond being just science fiction and are highly recommended.
AWESOME
this movie was just awesome. maybe the plot was a little cliche, but i had adrenaline pumping through me the entire time. this movie was so intense. but the whole thing was intense. O and it had a nice ending too. the problem with recent movies like cloverfield and i am legend, were the endings. but i was pleased with this one. i highly recommend it.
A reasonable film
Okay, so yeah, it's corny and cliche. To some extent though it does makes some valid points. I like the idea of without war and aggression and emotion humans cease to be human. Its a theme that's, no doubt, been used before but nevertheless is still interesting. The problem with this movie is that it doesn't spend enough time developing that theme. There's a good bit of running, and then some screaming, and then some crying, and then more running, and then some more crying, and then more running. Until the end when the point is of it all is finally discovered. I wasn't bored but I don't think its worth 4 bucks. I rented it when it was 2.50.