Invaders - Invasion aus dem All

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 Invaders by Quinn Martin with Roy Thinnes was successful because, in my opinion, we never saw the true form of the alien beings from a dying world.....

There were also certain rules that we learned about what they were and their terrestrial limitations. We learned, for example, that they had taken human form and had to remain in that form while on Earth or they would die. They had been here for untold years before David Vincent's fateful encounter with them one dark night on a lonely road at a deserted diner, thus they had infiltrated positions in society from a prostitute in a bar to positions of power within the Department of Defense. They could be men, women, and even children. Paranoia was rife because one could not be certain that anyone from the paper boy on his bike to a high ranking politician on telly was human. In every way they looked and behaved like normal human beings.

We also learned that the aliens did have limitations that could reveal their identity. Though they had the outward appearance of being human, they were very different inside: They had an irregular skeletal structure, no heart, and no blood; when cut, they would not bleed. An X-ray, blood test, or any number of medical procedures would quickly disclose their less than human nature, however a simple test was just to take a pulse which would give the appearance that they were dead even though they were fully conscious and ambulatory.

They had to regenerate periodically to remain in human form. Only in human form could they breath our weak 20% mixture of oxygen for limited periods of time before they would have to regenerate; pure oxygen would bring on an instant requirement for regeneration. They knew their limitations and would regenerate long before the need became critical. When, on occasion, the need became critical, they would begin to return to their alien form, but since they could not live on Earth in their native form, they would die before the transformation was complete. Either by design or happenstance, they would incinerate at the moment of death in our atmosphere. Before they could turn to their native form, they would begin to glow (an indication that they were dying and that incineration was imminent). Thus they could be killed as easily as any human, but since David Vincent's need was not just to kill them individually, but to have a living specimen to prove to a disbelieving world that they were here and the nightmare had begun, and since their dedication to their purpose and anonymity was greater than their fear of death, he just could never bring off a perfect disclosure.

IN THE FILM VERSION, we were given the hype that this would answer the question of what became of the aliens and David Vincent in the quarter century since the show was terminated without catharsis. The reality was that the only hint of a tie-in was the presence of David Vincent for what amounted to a cameo appearance in the first and second part. They did not have the polished human appearance of those in the series; they looked and behaved like whacked-out zombies and instantly drew suspicion that all was not well. The rules were all changed and they made the mistake of trying to show the aliens in their native form. This killed the mystique and violated the principle that THERE IS NOTHING THAT THE EYE CAN BEHOLD THAT IS AS HORRIFIC AS THAT WHICH CAN BE CONJURED IN THE MIND. With the series, we each had a mental vision of what they looked like that was far more terrifying than the Hollywood magicians could give us at their best, let alone the 1950s style, rubber masked freaks that were offered here.

Artistic infidelity is not just limited to book to film translations. The film version of the classic television series of The Invaders shows that in various media, some things do not lend well to artistic license and should be left in the form for which they were designed.

Terrible attempt to cash in on The Invaders TV series of the 60s. This sort of thing was going on in the 90s with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) becoming SeaQuest DSV (1993). There was also a remake of the 60s Outer Limits series.

In fact during this period I felt so swamped by remakes of 60s shows that some of them just went right over my head.

The original Invaders TV series of 1967 was a very professional looking production with knockout music cues (mainly in the first season) and it had the unusual situation of having wonderful looking Ford cars appearing all the time (this was because Ford sponsored the series and they demanded the cars be constantly seen).

The old series was a product of the time and it simply does not belong in 1995. Which is probably why this 1995 production gets negative reviews.

I agree that the movie "The Invaders" had its problems, it was long and tedious, and sometimes confusing. But to diss a movie because of Factual errors? Its Hollywood; what did you expect? them to hire Physics experts to give them the information to keep these factual mistakes down? raoulfenderson must be such, maybe he or she should offer services to Hollywood.. I enjoyed the movie for what it was, a movie, even though it was low tech, and tedious sometimes, as I believe the makers were shooting for. After all, the movie was based upon a somewhat campy/cheesy TV show from 1966/1967. As I write this, I am watching the series on SciFy Channel, just as cheesy as the movie, but just as enjoyable as the old days...

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.