Eye Candy #167 - "The Invasion"

The Invasion: Another remake mining the same “Body Snatchers” materials that’s been trotted out since the 1950’s (and frankly, can any of them top the original, which still resonates today). This time around we’ve got Nicole Kidman playing the Kevin McCarthy role (even has the same last name as McCarthy‘s character), a single mother/psychiatrist who figures out that things aren’t quite right in the neighborhood, after the space shuttle crashes. Bringing aliens back with the wreckage Helping her out is her boyfriend, Daniel Craig, and a doctor, Jeffrey Wright. Same old tropes here - aliens from outer space come to the US and take over bodies when people fall asleep. Instead of being pod people, it’s more like biological warfare (think more like John Carpenter’s “The Thing”). This is the initial English language for director Oliver Hirschbiegel (who gave us the fantastic “The Downfall”). However, I understand there was significant re-shooting by James McTeigue (who either did or “ghost”-did “V for Vendetta”) and script re-writing by one of the Wachowski brothers, so who knows how much of his vision actually ended up on the screen. The current offering is fairly pedestrian. Whereas the initial film is perceived as more of an indictment of Communism and the associated loss of freedoms, this contemporary version is more an indictment barbarity of human society in general and its inherent violence (war, terrorism, greed, etc.). Still no great shakes. Woodchuck sez, “Check out the original instead.”