SPOILER ALERT

 

I went to see Invasion tonight with B. and it turned out to be a pretty good movie. It’s a re-make of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. The movie has a good amount of suspense pretty much all the way through with some interesting transitions between scenes.

 

The premise is simple enough – the space shuttle Patriot crashes scattering wreckage across the United States. Attached to the wreckage is some form of alien spore that inevitably end up infecting a huge number of people. It turns out the spores are individually intelligent and when they infect someone they become part of a collective intelligence. The old person’s memories are available but they are essentially driven to the unconscious. At any rate the movie progresses pretty much the way you would expect, all the while a sub-plot unfolds in the background television news programs and newspapers – as the infection spreads world peace breaks out, accords are being signed between historic enemies around the world. The movie ends fairly suddenly and in a way that makes you ask whether there is a twist coming – but it never does. It’s a typical happy ending…until you start remembering the subplot and you begin to realize the happy ending might have been if people had remained infected. Interesting.

 

I’d like to see Starlight as well – it’s based on a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and looks pretty good.