Invasion, The

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Connects on a gut level in two ways, political and existential.

Miami Herald Rene 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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan 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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth 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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk 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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie isn't terrible; it's just low-rent and reductive.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Mostly about delivering thrills, and chills, and this it does with moderate success and a bunch of fast, no-nonsense edits.

Washington Post Stephen 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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William 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.

Variety Dennis Harvey

A slick but forgettable, characterless thriller.

ReelViews James 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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Enough with the snatching, already.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

At times, The Invasion comes across as a mishmash of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Stepford Wives."

The New York Times Manohla 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.

USA Today Scott 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.

Wall Street Journal Joanne 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.

TV Guide Maitland 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.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger 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.

Portland Oregonian M. 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.

Salon.com Mary 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.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Buried somewhere within the bipolar extravaganza that is The Invasion is an awfully good movie that got away.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith 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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

There hasn't been so much pea soup spit onscreen since "The Exorcist."

Empire Simon 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.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Obliterating the original structure and intent of "Body Snatchers" is cinema-lit blasphemy.

Premiere Glenn 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.

LA Weekly Scott 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.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

The only mildly interesting bit of casting comes from bringing Cartwright back (as one of Bennell’s patients).

New York Post Lou 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.

Austin Chronicle Marc 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.