Alien replicants replace humans and attempt to take over the world in The Invasion, the fourth screen version of Jack Finney's 1955 novel, The Body Snatchers.

The only way you can tell who is still human and who isn't is this: The aliens look blank and never show emotion. Casting Nicole Kidman in this thing might be someone's idea of a little joke.

The Invasion opens with a space shuttle accident that leaves debris strewn all over America. That debris is contaminated with some alien goo, but nobody knows what it is. Yet.

Kidman plays a psychiatrist, and soon after the shuttle incident, a patient reports that her husband has changed so much it's as if he isn't her husband anymore. Wow. Weird or what. Kidman soon notices a lot of people behaving strangely. When her son gets a bit of goo on his hand after trick or treating on Hallowe'en, she takes the goo to her doctor boyfriend (Daniel Craig) to be analyzed. Scientists all over the world are trying to find out what the strange goo could be.

Kidman's ex-husband (Jeremy Northam) is a government guy who is one of the first to be switched, alien-wise. This means Kidman's son is in grave danger when he goes to visit his father.

Before long, alien switcheroos are everywhere. Those who are still human discover that the swap happens when one sleeps (icky goo is involved), so nobody can fall asleep or show emotion, if they hope to stay alive. Eventually, Kidman must try to find and rescue her son, which entails foot chases and car chases and general running away of every sort.

There's a lot of important talk in The Invasion about war, world chaos and what savages humans really are, but we're not sure why. This film has no teeth, and philosophy doesn't help you chew.

For a thriller, it isn't very scary, and the general atmosphere is devoid of the tension, dread and fear so important to moving viewers to that edge-of-seat position. Daniel Craig and Jeffrey Wright (as a scientist) are the only believable characters in the story, and, sadly, you really won't care about what happens to anybody, anyway.

The Invasion is the English language debut feature of German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who also directed such brilliant films as Downfall and The Experiment. Either someone messed with his version of the story, or some of that alien goo got into the edit suite.

It could happen.

(This film is rated 14-A)
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