The Invasion

The Invasion

2007
Washington, D.C. psychologist Carol Bennell and her colleague Dr. Ben Driscoll are the only two people on Earth who are aware of an epidemic running rampant through the city. They discover an alien virus aboard a crashed space shuttle that transforms anyone who comes into contact with it into unfeeling drones while they sleep. Carol realizes her son holds the key to stopping the spread of the plague and she races to find him before it is too late.
Ratings:
Brad Score: 4.2/10
Internet Score: 6.1/10
Director:
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Cast:
Veronica Cartwright, Daniel Craig, Jeffrey Wright, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Josef Sommer, Celia Weston, Malin Åkerman, Roger Rees
Genres:
Mystery Thriller Science Fiction Horror

My notes

This is a messy little film. It felt like at some point it had something to say about the GWoT, but with the rewrites and additional filming and delayed editing, that message was either vastly reduced or ineffectively added.

And it elevates Daniel Craig's role to co-lead despite him having a large supporting role - which I'm attributing the the film being shot before Casino Royale but released after (see post film re-writes, re-shoots, and re-edits).

But what really makes this film messy is watching it in a post-Covid world as the evil space spores used flu vaccines as a means to spread the infection. The totality of the messy GWoT messaging and the post-Covid reframe just makes the whole thing feel sloppy.

On the nice side - it's a technology time capsule thanks to the Nokia and Sony seemingly paying for product placement of phones with front-facing video cameras (extremely novel!) and the kids with their PSPs (which they likely would have had as upper middle class DC kids in the mid 2000s). The CGI didn't age well, but Arrow did a really good job cleaning up the print into a 4k re-release.

Just a shame about the post-filming shuffle.

Watched July 16, 2026 via UHD — rated 4.2/10