{"id":1929,"date":"2009-10-21T23:25:24","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T03:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=1929"},"modified":"2022-10-26T11:03:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T15:03:07","slug":"pod-people-film-festival-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/pod-people-film-festival-invasion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pod People Film Festival: The Invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nicole Kidman must be one of the unluckiest stars in Hollywood, having recently starred in at least two big-budget catastrophes. Frank Oz’s The Stepford Wives<\/em> (2004) was sabotaged by cast members dropping out, extensive reshoots, and competing script revisions that left significant logical plot holes in the finished film. Next, Invasion<\/em> is best described as quite simply a broken<\/em> movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One full year after the completion of principal photography under director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall<\/em>), producer Joel Silver contracted The Wachowskis (The Matrix<\/em>, Speed Racer<\/em><\/a>) to write new scenes to be directed by their protege James McTeigue (V for Vendetta<\/em><\/a>). Warner Bros. expended $10 million on 17 extra days of shooting in an attempt to reshape what was reportedly a more internal, psychological suspense piece into more commercial thriller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nicole
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re in a terrible movie…?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a brief, promising opening scene (a flash-forward, we later learn, to a world almost fallen to an alien attack), Invasion<\/em> quickly descends into full-on sci-fi action clich\u00e9. A space shuttle disintegrates on re-entry, carrying a payload of virulent spores bent on world domination. After the real-life loss of the crews of the shuttles Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003), this spectacular special effects sequence is about as tasteful as watching CGI skyscrapers crumble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the Wachowskis’ late additions was a ridiculously long car chase through the streets of Washington DC (filmed in Baltimore), with psychiatrist Carol (Kidman) behind the wheel of a literally burning Mustang. It’s beyond implausible that a shrink would have the driving skills of a modern-day Bullet<\/em> (Steve McQueen) or Popeye O’Doyle (Gene Hackman in The French Connection<\/em>). In fact, Kidman damaged more than her career: she broke several ribs during an accident incurred while shooting the sequence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest problem is not the clumsily grafted-on action spectacle but the choppy screenplay. It’s painfully obvious to spot the seams between Dave Kajganich’s original script, which one can infer would have made for a more subtle horror story about an alien invasion accomplished without bullets or the exploding of infrastructure, and the Wachowskis’ reduction to the lowest common denominator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie is at its best when Carol senses the subtle changes of her city’s daily routine as the invasion spreads. It’s also interesting as she encounters other uninfected survivors that have learned to hide in plain sight. Veronica Cartwright, who appeared in Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version, appears as one of Carol’s patients who is apparently naturally immune. She counsels her to pretend to be a Stepford Wife in order to avoid detection by the dispassionate alien intelligences that have taken over most of the population. But these moody sequences are all too brief in-between the car chases and explosions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nicole
“Our world is a better world”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A huge chunk feels missing from the middle; the second act should be a slow discovery of the details of the invasion and a gradual escalation of the conflict. But Carol and her doctor paramour Ben (Daniel Craig) leap to the accurate conclusion of an alien invasion based on only a few observed cases of mild weirdness around them, clearing the rest of the movie’s running time for a series of chase sequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worst of all is yet another criminal misuse of poor Jeffrey Wright (reunited with 007 co-star Daniel Craig), a brilliant actor saddled with most of the script’s laughable technobabble that leaves no room to the imagination (the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/a><\/em> was arguably not specific enough, but the 1978 version<\/a> found just the right level of gory detail without getting bogged down in tedious pseudoscience).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Finney’s classic sci-fi novel The Body Snatchers<\/em> has been adapted over and over into movies that illuminate the concerns of the times. Don Siegel’s 1956 original was a thinly-veiled critique of McCarthyism. Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake also made sense in a post-Vietnam and Watergate era. Abel Ferrara applied the metaphor to blind obedience and conformity in the military in his 1993 Body Snatchers<\/a><\/em>. Robert Rodri\u00adguez found the most perfect setting yet, as he satirized teen peer pressure in high school in The Faculty<\/a><\/em> (1998). What does the oft-told Body Snatchers tale mean today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invasion is the fourth version of novel, and the second to ditch the notion of replacement bodies. As in The Faculty<\/em>: the aliens are puppetmaster-like parasites that take over human bodies without permanently harming them. Invasion<\/em> makes a fleeting reference to other nations publicly combating the alien insurgents. The US is the only one to hide behind a cover story that has the opposite intended effect, only further enabling the invasion to succeed. Invasion<\/em> might have been a better film if it had focused more on this glimmer of political satire than on Shuttle disasters and burning Mustangs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Welcome to The Pod People Film Festival, our third mini movie retrospective. After catching up with Ridley Scott<\/a> and George A. Romero<\/a>, we now take a look at four adaptations of Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers<\/em>, plus one unofficial homage \/ satire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/a> (1956)<\/li>
  2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/a> (1978)<\/li>
  3. Body Snatchers<\/a> (1993)<\/li>
  4. The Faculty<\/a> (1998)<\/li>
  5. The Invasion (2007)<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Nicole Kidman must be one of the unluckiest stars in Hollywood, having recently starred in at least two big-budget catastrophes. Frank Oz’s The Stepford Wives (2004) was sabotaged by cast members dropping out, extensive reshoots, and competing script revisions that left significant logical plot holes in the finished film. Next, Invasion is best described as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,2],"tags":[2006,378,684,723,90,693,695,725,722,687,724,353,721,85,1979],"class_list":["post-1929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1-star","category-movies","tag-2006","tag-alien-invasion","tag-daniel-craig","tag-dave-kajganich","tag-horror","tag-invasion-of-the-body-snatchers","tag-jack-finney","tag-jackson-bond","tag-james-mcteigue","tag-jeffrey-wright","tag-jeremy-northam","tag-nicole-kidman","tag-oliver-hirschbiegel","tag-science-fiction","tag-wachowskis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-2007.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-v7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1909,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/pod-people-film-festival-body-snatchers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":0},"title":"The Pod People Film Festival: Body Snatchers (1993)","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers might seem an odd project for iconoclast director Abel Ferrara, known for gritty urban crime sagas centered around profoundly compromised protagonists. In stark contrast, the lead in Ferrara's most conventional movie is a good-natured teenage girl, a world apart from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Body Snatchers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/body-snatchers-1993.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/body-snatchers-1993.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/body-snatchers-1993.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/body-snatchers-1993.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/body-snatchers-1993.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1897,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/pod-people-film-festival-invasion-of-the-body-snatchers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":1},"title":"The Pod People Film Festival: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For a pulpy 1950s horror flick relating the strange tale of an invasion of giant brussels sprouts, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a startlingly gory, paranoid nightmare positively loaded with political subtext. Its themes of identity, mistrust, and subversion have remained relevant and influential for decades, inspiring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1902,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/pod-people-film-festival-invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":2},"title":"The Pod People Film Festival: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Philip Kaufman's re-imagining of Don Siegel's 1956 classic paranoid nightmare Invasion of the Body Snatchers immediately signals its uniqueness with a strange and beautifully abstract opening sequence. Psychedelic spores float off the surface of an alien planet, traverse through outer space, and fall to Earth as gelatinous rain. A glimpse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":339,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad-1966\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":3},"title":"Peter Cushing as Doctor Who in Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., the second Doctor Who feature film, follows Dr. Who & The Daleks by one short year, and clearly betrays where the public's interest lay at the time by ditching any mention of Dr. Who in the title. The first film largely disregarded the TV show's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1 Star"","block_context":{"text":"1 Star","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/1-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Daleks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1918,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/pod-people-film-festival-faculty\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":4},"title":"The Pod People Film Festival: The Faculty","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We interrupt this retrospective look at the four official feature film adaptations of Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers with a kind of bonus track, a remake in all but name, Robert Rodri\u00adguez's The Faculty. It may be a touch campy, but hugely entertaining. All four official versions are deadly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Faculty","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/faculty-1998.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/faculty-1998.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/faculty-1998.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/faculty-1998.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/faculty-1998.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":670,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/margot-at-the-wedding\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":5},"title":"Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I very much loved writer\/director Noah Baumbach's previous film The Squid and The Whale, blessed with an excellent script and superb performances all around (especially by the versatile Jeff Daniels - heartbreaking in Pleasantville, and capable of humanizing no less an icon than George Washington in The Crossing). Margot at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Margot at the Wedding","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/margot-at-the-wedding-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/margot-at-the-wedding-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/margot-at-the-wedding-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/margot-at-the-wedding-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/margot-at-the-wedding-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7645,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions\/7645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}