'The Invasion' As Bad As They Said It Would Be
The first reviews have begun to trickle in for The Invasion, a Warner Bros. production plagued by paparazzi-captured car crashes and a German auteur, discharged by the studio after his esoteric vision failed to deliver the kinds of zombie car chases that put asses into summer movie theater seats. With an early Tomatometer Score of 15%, the ominous buzz hanging over the late-August dumping ground release appears to have been justified. The Invasion may have reportedly brought in the Wachowski siblings at the 11th hour to hit all the required projectile-vomiting notes, but, ironically, for a movie about a dehumanizing alien virus, the consensus seems to be that that it woefully lacks a heart. Here's sample of what the critics are saying:
· "Is there a Razzie Award for worst casting? If so, it's one of several that can be reserved early for this fourth, spectacularly lousy screen version of Jack Finney's 1954 novella The Body Snatchers." [LA Weekly]
· "The movie isn't terrible; it's just low-rent and reductive...This is just a glorified zombie movie: 28 Days Later with monsters — they even spread the virus by vomiting! — that look like you and me." [EW]
· "While it's impossible as a viewer to tell where one person's work ends and another's begins, it's clear that all those voices and influences have resulted in a film that feels truncated, rushed, unfocused and—worst of all—not the slightest bit scary or suspenseful." [AP]
· "Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers haunts you for years, whereas The Invasion is forgotten before the end of the credits." [CBS5.com]
· "All good things must come to an end — in this case, the lucky streak that's made every adaptation of Jack Finney's 1955 sci-fi novel "The Body Snatchers" distinctive and effective, until now." [Variety]