Where as “The Invasion” is an uber-remake that lies to itself about its originality, and garners an A List cast, “Invasion of the Pod People” from those wacky cats at The Asylum, is another mockbuster hoping to cash in on this upcoming Nicole Kidman vehicle and sports a title much more obvious, but much less shameful. “Invasion of the Pod People” is one of those movies that sound like it has the surefire possibility to be very good, but in actuality, it’s just another embarrassing Asylum rip off, in the end. One of the more misguided aspects of “Invasion of the Pod People” is that it assumes it has the market cornered on social satire.

What it presumes is that if it sets our story down in a lush world of fashion, it will set itself apart from the other wannabes, and really it just manages to state the obvious. Rather than pods implanting themselves, the “pods” here are given as presents to others in odd cacti, and the drones are much nicer and friendlier instead of being blank slates. Scott as a writer can never seem to make up his mind what kind of film he wants this to be. At times it’s ambiguously hyper sexual with no rhyme or reason along with hinting at our main character being taken over by a pod person and then completely pulling back from it, then it attempts satirical themes paired with light comedy by peeking into the show business world, and then it vies for science fiction with no real avail.

There’s also never a particular series of principles put forth here. The aliens can just get you while you’re out doing anything, they don’t sap your life force, they go about as you even if you’re alive which manages to create a surefire series of inconsistencies, and of course the aliens kill their original model which also raises questions of what to do with the body. “Invasion of the Pod People” is just too messy and incoherent to really take it seriously. It’s another cash in with inconsistencies by bunches (why does a high powered exec have an office in a dark basement?), and a performance by Erica Roby that is just strong enough to get us through the ninety minute run time, save for the supporting actresses who scowl and grin devilishly, resembling characters in a bad Spanish soap opera.

“Invasion of the Pod People” starts off strong enough, with some interesting potential to be entertaining and a strong candidate for a good DTV wannabe, but as the inconsistencies grow, and the characters dimensions fail to progress it feels more like an attempted “Stepford Wives” redux that eventually evolves into white noise in the background.

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