The Invasion
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: August 17, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
18
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Connects on a gut level in two ways, political and existential. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
There's no question The Invasion works in a mechanical, by-the-numbers manner. But it's what the movie leaves you with -- absolutely nothing -- that is the scariest thing about it. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
An involving sci-fi action-thriller, probably longer on chase sequences than the original director wanted and shorter on the "ick" factor than the studio wanted. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Still effectively creepy and surprisingly unnerving despite the occasional misstep and rumors of a troubled production, the new film illustrates why and how the power of the original story remains undiminished more than half a century after its creation. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The third remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) may not be a patch on the original, but it does have a few things the other versions lack. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie isn't terrible; it's just low-rent and reductive. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Mostly about delivering thrills, and chills, and this it does with moderate success and a bunch of fast, no-nonsense edits. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
On the technical side, The Invasion has several first-rate, terrifying action sequences and grips totally from start to finish. But a subplot involving the Russian Embassy doesn't really pay off, and the relationship between Kidman and glum paramour Daniel Craig (another doc) isn't much. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's a moderately compelling sci-fi action movie with a handful of scary scenes -- though nothing at all special, and only a shadow of the original or even its 1978 remake. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis Harvey
A slick but forgettable, characterless thriller. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The mismatched blending of Hirschbiegel's low-key horror and the Wachowski Brothers' anything-but-low-key action sequences results in a cinematic dud. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Enough with the snatching, already. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
At times, The Invasion comes across as a mishmash of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Stepford Wives." Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Whatever the case, The Invasion lurches and drags and teeters on the brink of death from scene to scene; it plays as if it had been made by someone in a trance, though not a cool one. Read full review
50
USA TodayScott Bowles
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. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Except for one terrifically adroit sequence in a subway, there is nothing understated about The Invasion. With all the shoot-outs, the screaming, the chases, collisions and fireballs, there isn't much time for storytelling. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
There's little room for ideas when there are flaming cars to be crashed, and overall the film is an infelicitous hodgepodge that lifts as liberally from "The Quatermass Experiment" (1956) and "28 Weeks Later" (2007) as "Body Snatchers" while leaving all the best bits behind -- even the iconic pods are gone. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Haven't they created a movie that is ultimately a soulless clone of a vibrant original and, thus, a splendidly dull example of the very forces it warns us against – the forces of grey and passion-sapping conformity. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Here is a great story born to be creepy, and the movie churns through it like a road company production. If the first three movies served as parables for their times, this one keeps shooting off parable rockets that fizzle out. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Buried somewhere within the bipolar extravaganza that is The Invasion is an awfully good movie that got away. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig are adequate leads, but no great actor will be more squandered this year than Jeffrey Wright, who does nothing but speak in vast paragraph blocks of exposition while looking haggard and bored. Read full review
50
SalonMary Elizabeth Williams
The problem with Hirschbiegel's ("Das Experiment," "Downfall") convoluted, car-crash-laden Invasion is that it doesn't know what symbolism it wants to grasp. Read full review
42
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
There hasn't been so much pea soup spit onscreen since "The Exorcist." Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Opting for car chases instead of the thought-provoking ideas of its predecessors, the film looks like the work of, if not pod people, folks who gave up any kind of passion for the material long before the cameras started to roll. Read full review
40
EmpireSimon Braund
If not a train-wreck, this is certainly more than a fender-bender. In a world overflowing with targets for a satirical pasting, we needed something a lot sharper than this. Read full review
38
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Noisome, fragmented mess of a movie, the fourth film based on Jack Finney's novel "The Body Snatchers" and the worst of them all. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Obliterating the original structure and intent of "Body Snatchers" is cinema-lit blasphemy. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Is there a Razzie Award for worst casting? If so, it’s one of several that can be reserved early for this fourth, spectacularly lousy screen version of Jack Finney’s 1954 novella "The Body Snatchers," which some bright light envisioned as the ideal starring vehicle for the Cold Mountain herself, Nicole Kidman, and for Daniel Craig, last seen as the most poker-faced James Bond on record. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
The only mildly interesting bit of casting comes from bringing Cartwright back (as one of Bennell’s patients). Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
In the fourth and by far the worst screen version of "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," Nicole Kidman's character struggles to stay awake - as will the audience. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's the pod people's version of a great, contemporaneously resonant cinematic fable, created by apparent committee, and utterly devoid of both meaning and feeling. The tagline warns: "Do not trust anyone. Do not show emotion. Do not fall asleep." Yawn. Read full review
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