A remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”? How about we call it “Invasion of the Death Flu” because not only are the body snatching aliens here intelligent flus, but their mission on Earth also seems to be to bore us to death. That’s the genius plan after all, to bore us to sleep so they can possess our bodies. I’m not one of those people who wrote “The Invasion” off as a junky remake immediately because I was really very ready to be surprised and give it a chance, but halfway in I began to fall asleep and realized what “The Invasion” was here for. It’s not so much a remake, hell it’s barely even a movie; it’s just more about our fear of diseases in society and what hysteria can provoke when the media incites such horror with epidemics that only manage to be small incidences, I get that. But what I don’t get is why “The Invasion” couldn’t be easier to watch as a horror film that also poses as a Sci-Fi movie.

This is a device best implemented in “Shaun of the Dead” that the cooks in the kitchen concocted with this UK set remake. Hell we even see someone running through crowds crying as Carol walks on without batting an eye. How can you take a menace seriously when the people that cooked up this mess are borrowing from comedies? And director Hirschbiegel tries his hardest to inject themes about the media, and our trust in the government and our fear of pandemics, but all of it is nothing but misfire after misfire with “The Invasion” relegated to practically being a drama. Even with the blatant cameo from Veronic Cartwright, there’s no suspense, there’s no paranoia, and certainly no instance where we fear for Carol, because Kidman looks bored the entire time. The talented Daniel Craig is also reduced to a minor character while the alien villains we’re introduced to are often too broadly developed to really gain a positive fear for. “The Invasion” is a mess, and one that will fail to entertain even the most open minded audience.

My understanding is that there were forced re-shoots and James McTeigue was hired to completely redo the film, so I don’t particularly blame the failures totally on Oliver Hirschbiegel; but as it stands, it has some great ideas with interesting commentary about humanity but all of that fails since “The Invasion” is a genre confused mess that is as stiff and lifeless as the aliens in the movie invading Earth.