The Invasion is the latest in a recent string of films like Poseidon and Flicka that are remakes of classic films—The Poseidon Adventure and My Friend Flicka, respectively—with abbreviated titles for today’s short attention spans. A remake of the 1956 sci-fi masterpiece Invasion of the Body Snatchers—also remade in 1978—The Invasion is about a race of aliens bent on taking over Earth by assimilating its residents.

Nicole Kidman plays Dr. Carol Bennell, a psychiatrist and single mother. When one of her patients arrives in her office complaining that her husband is not her husband, she shrugs it off and gives her an antipsychotic.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bennell’s ex-husband Tucker works for the CDC and is investigating the recent crash landing of the space shuttle. Using a lot of technical jargon that means nothing to the typical moviegoer, the film explains that a strange virus was infecting the crew of the shuttle and survived reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Tucker is one of the first infected and becomes an alien version of himself. Unfortunately he is still enough like himself that Carol does not notice the difference before dropping off her son for the weekend.

Carol shortly begins to notice a definite change in her environment, most notably the people. With the help of two doctors—and a lot more technical jargon—Carol soon learns that the virus is transforming everyone into an alien race and that the change takes place during REM sleep. In order to rescue her son and, eventually, the rest of the world, Carol must keep herself awake and find a safe haven where they can work on an antidote.

Having not seen it, I cannot speak for the 1978 remake—but the original 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an undeniable classic, ranking with The Day the Earth Stood Still as one of the absolute best of the 1950s sci-fi films. The Invasion, unfortunately, is an enormous disappointment, simply because the film completely fails to build any tension.

This is actually a problem faced by most modern films and it represents a fundamental difference between today’s filmmakers and the filmmakers of the 1940s and 50s. In the earlier films, the directors used their stories and characters to build tension throughout the entire film, whereas in modern films, the directors use rapid editing and shaky cameras to create tension. The result is a whole that is not greater than the sum of its parts. Instead of Psycho, we get a collection of shower scenes.

Perhaps the filmmakers are not to blame for this fundamental flaw. Perhaps it’s the same audiences that need shorter movie titles that cause filmmakers to try so hard to create tension rather than to build it.

The inability to build tension is not the only thing holding The Invasion back from being a good film. First of all, the tension that is created is often broken by humor that I’m sure was unintended by the filmmakers. Also, the aforementioned editing is not just rapid, but sloppy. When I’m watching a dinner scene and not listening to key dialogue because I’m too focused on the juxtaposition of the shots, the editing is too obtrusive.

There are also a couple of characters who are introduced only to completely disappear from the film—for instance, I’m still trying to figure out why Carol apparently tried calling her ex-husband twice one night, but then is upset when he calls her the next morning.

I had high hopes for The Invasion as I like the plot and was interested to see a modern spin on it. Unfortunately, I left the theater wishing they had just re-released the original. This is just another example of why filmmakers should use their creative intuitions to create good films, rather than attempt to remake bona fide classics.

The Invasion is rated R for “language.” I didn’t so much notice the language, but I guess there must have been enough to warrant an R rating. You could also add intense action sequences and some grotesque images to the reasoning.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of The Invasion.