So I just watched The Invasion, a very entertaining and good but incredibly cliche and convenient horror / sci-fi thriller about an alien viral infection that makes its way to Earth aboard a crashing Space Shuttle. Bear in mind that I didn't really want to even see this, it was snow ninja's idea, but I did actually enjoy it. The cinematography and editing were very well done (if not typically post-modern), and the music had a suspensful Hitchcock-ian feel to it that really added to the excitement of the movie.
Daniel Craig wasn't annoying in it, so that was good, and Nicole Kidman looks fantastic - I really hope I have her body when I'm that age.
The thing that really got me about the movie was that it followed the trend of modern movies to sort of gloss over story line co-incidences with a kind of bravado that makes you wonder if the writers really believe that the stuff they are writing is believable, or if they just figure that if they don't call attention to it the general public won't notice. As a writer, I tend to think it's the latter, but as a writer I really wish that writers were above this. Then again, I think that with the glut of tales that have been told over the centuries, it just might be inevitable for us to have to suffer through this sort of thing just to get a unique story.
Not that this story was all that unique. In some ways it was, but there was still the strong heroine who perseveres in the face of adversity, the over-intelligent peripheral characters who just happen to be smart enough (and have access to the right equipment) to solve the scientific problems, and the other peripheral character who just happens to be immune to the infection - holding the answer to the antidote.
Still worth watching though, and there were definitely some deep philosophical questions buried amid the Hollywood fluff that make it a discussion piece as well.
