Preachy 'The Invasion' gets a little too heady

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
Alien zombies shouldn't proselytize. They should eat your brains. Hunt you down. Or, in the case of The Invasion, vomit in your mouth.
Unfortunately for Invasion, the filmmakers and their body-snatching villains also seem bent on sermonizing about everything from the war in Iraq to the state of the pharmaceutical industry.

It's a shame the aliens are so preachy, because this remake of the 1956 and 1978 versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers features a top-notch cast in Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and moments of unnerving terror.

The film doesn't waste much time with backstory: It opens with a space shuttle explosion that spreads a swath of debris from Texas to Washington, D.C.

Before long, people aren't acting like themselves. They're emotionless, glassy-eyed and, for some reason, great at enunciating their words.

Psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Kidman) and her doctor friend Ben Driscoll (Craig) quickly figure out that the shuttle crash spread alien spores throughout the nation, and those people who become infected turn into lobotomized drones after one good night's sleep.

Invasion starts promisingly enough, particularly when Bennell and Driscoll are trying to figure out who has been zombified. The infected are menacingly stoic and as fast as the flesh-eaters in 28 Days Later. And unlike in the previous Body Snatcher films, Invasion's creatures aren't spawned from pods but by other aliens spitting up in their face or drink (best to use the self-serve beverage dispenser).

But soon the film becomes cluttered with political commentary: The U.S. pulls out of Iraq; Darfur suddenly isn't a bad place to live. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who did 2004's astounding Downfall, even has one alien questioning whether prescription drugs aren't turning people into mindless drones.

It's too much for a monster movie, especially when coupled with a surprisingly tidy ending. Next time the aliens come invading, they may want to pass the brains, hold the lecture.