The end credits state “An Oliver Hirschbiegel Film” but anyone who has read Entertainment Weekly or The New York Times in the past week knows that’s not entirely true. Hirschbiegel (the acclaimed filmmaker behind the German language film Downfall) is the nominal director but reportedly studio screenings got Warner Brothers so skittish they had producer Joel Silver organize some emergency reshoots. Silver, who was quoted in EW as saying “I wasn’t intending to make a little art film…I tend to make commercial, mainstream movies. [The Invasion] just needed a little help,” reassembled some of his Matrix team – which included the Wachowski Brothers and first assistant director James McTeigue – for an extra 17 days of shooting. It’s likely that most of the film’s action-oriented conclusion is a product of these reshoots: in particular, a silly, videogame inspired POV shot down the barrel of a gun seems like the type of high-concept, rhythm-breaking ignominy that a studio head might deem hip.

There may be enough unexpected startles to appease a Friday night crowd in this final, fragmented version but the unfulfilled mixture of camp and terror constantly reminds the audience of just how much the film is a shamble.

Movie Grade: C

Synopsis:

The Invasion tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings. When a Washington D.C. psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) discovers the epidemic's origins are extraterrestrial, she must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping an imminent invasion.