Invaders - Invasion aus dem All

I am a huge fan of "evil aliens" movies, plus I absolutely loved the original TV series from back in the day. So of course I was ready to really enjoy this flick. Egad! What a woofer! Nothing you haven't seen numerous times before -- hey, the premise works! it's entertaining in theory! -- but when you've got such low-quality acting, cheesy effects, a meandering script ... blah! The only thing it had going for it was Richard Belzer practically in a reprise of his "cigarette-smoking man" role in "Puppet Masters." It takes a real conspiracy of incompetence to make a "body-snatchers" themed movie utterly fail, but they managed to achieve it with this one. No surprise they never revived the TV series if this piece of dreck was the pilot.

Give the producers of this movie credit for making one smart decision, and that is to make it a continuation of the classic 1960s TV show, and not a complete from-the-beginning remake.

Give the writers credit also for the very subtle subtext which equates the invading aliens with their more human counterparts who still don't believe in environmentalism or global warming. Never actually said outright, it's kind of implied that those who knowingly promote more and more pollution are not only anti-American, but anti-Earth.

That said, there's plenty in this four-hour pilot that gets an E for effort but a C- for execution.

The plot is familiar territory, even those not familiar with the TV series. Earth is being secretly invaded by aliens who look like us, and we follow the adventures of one man who knows the truth.

Sci-fi fans old enough to remember the classic show, as well as any number of similarly- plotted motion pictures, will instantly spot some problems with this film.

Possibly the goofiest is Richard Belzer as a Rush Limbaugh clone who vents his warped thoughts across the Los Angeles airwaves every morning. I suppose he's supposed to bolster the subtext I mentioned above, but in point of fact he has no actual impact on the story and never connects with the other characters, leaving us with the impression that this movie ran fifteen minutes short and that they shot the Belzer footage as filler.

Equally disappointing though is the lethargic pacing. "The Invaders" is really a decent two-and-a-half to three hour movie (with commercials) in a four-hour slot. There's little sense of urgency to the proceedings, a situation not helped by keeping star Scott Bakula in a passive mode for much of the show.

Too, there is a little bit too much modification of the "Invaders" canon. We see the aliens' true form, and frankly, it's nothing more gruesome than you've seen in other sci-fi/horror shows. We DON'T get to see what was a favorite moment in the old series: an alien burning up as it died. Nor do we get to see their spaceship. A more ornate version of the saucer from the old TV show would have been welcome, but here we get little more than "Close Encounters"-style bright lights coming out of clouds.

They've also muddied the whole idea of "regeneration". As originally conceived, the aliens had to return to "regeneration stations" regularly, to be placed in glass tubes and processed so that they could appear human and continue to breathe our atmosphere. Here the "tubes" appear to be used to suck the life out of humans so that it can be infused into their identical-looking alien impostors. And the new regeneration consists of things like inhaling truck fumes.

This also introduces an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" aspect that, unless I'm wrong, was not a part of the original series. In the TV show, aliens (in human form) appeared to have been always "there", in the same way a mole infiltrates a spy organization and lays low for years. There was none of this "yesterday Person X was a human, and today he's been replaced by an identical- looking alien" stuff -- again, at least as far as I recall.

Then, those neat little discs that induced apparent coronaries in human beings are gone. Pity, because they were a handy way for the aliens to get rid of eyewitnesses. On the other hand, introduced is some kind of telepathic ability the aliens have to control certain people, which I don't recall being a part of the show either. Not that I'm against entertaining new facets of the aliens' "lore", but it would have been nice to have more stuff from the original TV series to get a handle on, before introducing new ideas.

Returning back to things which are gone, however...if you're waiting to hear the familiar theme music from the TV series, you're waiting in vain. Surely it wouldn't have been hard to get some composer to re-orchestrate some of that classic Dominic Frontiere music. It doesn't sound like an important thing, but just the music alone could have been enough to give this production more of the feel of the classic show.

One welcome spark of life comes from the all-too-brief appearance of David Vincent (Roy Thinnes, as the same character he played in the 1960s TV show). The manner in which he's woven into the plot is fine, and I suppose it makes sense to have an aging Vincent "pass the baton" to someone younger, but that facet is never explored, and Vincent is gone from the story all too soon, leaving us wondering what he's been up to for the last twenty years anyway.

Quinn Martin had scored in the mid-sixties with a show starring David Jaansan about a man running for his life from the relentless pursuit of a law officer (Barry Morse). "The Fugitive" was also seeking to find the murderer of his wife: the elusive "one-armed man." This cat-and-mouse drama played out for five successful years.

Martin revamped the concept by having architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes), after discovering aliens on this planet, starts his own quest to bring them down, traveling, a la fugitive, throughout the country.

This TV-movie tries to update the classic series by having a popular sci-fi star ("Quantum Leap's" Scott Bakula), a popular family show star ("The Walton's" Richard Thomas), and having Roy Thinnes, himself, appear as protagonists.

Well, the plot is basically the same, with updated effects, and "contemporary" political and military intrigue. Unfortunately, the characters and the situations are not very involving and the movie only "gains steam," literally when Bakula is aboard an out-of-control subway train.

That's when Jon Politto (late of NBC's "Homicide") does the most credible acting as the subway supervisor who must figure out a way to stop the speeding transport. His nail-biting performance is a feat of intensity, unmatched by anyone else in the cast.

'Too bad the rest of the film isn't as good as he is.

The original show produced by Quinn Martin was intelligently done with Roy Thinnes as architect David Vincent as the lone voice that cried out in the wilderness against these alien beings. This mini series made a joke out of it. Now, the old boy makes only a couple of cameo appearances. If you blink, you'll miss him. You would think this movie would open with him stumbling on this Nolan Wood guy and the two of them would work together to try to bring these beings down, but no. Just a mile ride down a lonely country road, he says they need to split up so they won't be captured together and blah, blah, blah. What is this crap? After all these years, I would think he would be glad to find a kindred soul who would be of some help to him. Vincent looks like a dingbat in the brief appearance he makes in this series. They should have teamed up together.

This series also got pc on us. It seems to imply that anyone who smokes is a hostile being from another planet. Any smokers out there willing to get the ACLU after the people who made this pile of crap? And this business with the flies was just a little bit gross. And Nolan's ex-wife had to be one ditzy female. At least their son called her on not noticing that there is anything weird about all these people coming in and having steak and eggs with their cigarettes and coffee. Got to give them credit for that at least. And what was with this radio announcer who, I think was supposed to be a Rush Limbaugh clone? Here's a news flash for you, folks. Rush isn't as hateful as this guy was. But I digress. Bottom line: this show ain't worth a tinker's damn without David Vincent. They just used this movie as an excuse to preach misguided environmental themes. As I said in the heading, BAD! BAD! BAD! (Did I mention it was bad?) 1 out of 10, and that's being generous.

The original INVADERS series from the 1960s was exceptional and very engaging. So, I was thrilled in the 1990s when it was announced that they were making a new pilot movie for a new series. I made super-sure to see it and enjoyed every minute. It was pretty faithful to the original ideas and plot and I looked forward to the shows. And I waited,...and waited,...and waited. It seems that this movie just didn't spark enough interest and so the idea of a new series was killed. It's a real shame, as I loved the notion that aliens had landed and were slowly taking over the Earth and no one seemed to know or care. And, each week the hero would try, often in vain, to get everyone to wake up to their insidious plan. Too bad. The people that made this film really did do well despite inspiring little, if any, hoopla about the series.