Director: Simon Cox
Writer: Simon Cox, Simon Bovey (Screenplay)
Starring: Simon Haycock, Lucy Drive, Julie Hoult, Danny Steele, Sophie Anderson, Jon Campling, Toyah Willcox
Plot: After the death of his young daughter, Thomas Dunn is a man who has lost his faith. On the day he finds out his wife is pregnant again, aliens invade the Earth.
Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Thinking Sci-Fi Film
Story: Invasion Planet Earth starts as Dr Thomas Dunn (Haycock) and his teacher wife Mandy (Drive) are still dealing with the loss of their infant daughter and with the news they are expecting again, they might finally be putting the pieces back together in their lives, until a sudden strange vision of an impending alien invasion coming to Earth hits everyone, bringing a mystery about what might be happening next.
The visions continue to haunt Thomas, as he starts to see strange horrific events that are testing his own sense of reality, filled with the destruction that only an alien craft could bring upon somebody.
Thoughts on Invasion Planet Earth
Characters – Thomas Dunn is a doctor, husband and father, he has been dealing with the grief of losing an infant daughter and is prepared to start a new start with his wife and new pregnancy. His joy turns to panic when he gets taken from Earth with his patients and put through a string of events from their pasts, he tries to think of a logical reason behind everything, while getting a chance to exercise his own demons. Mandy is the teacher, wife and mother expecting her second child, after the death of the first child. She is in her classroom when the incident happens. Harriett, Floyd and Samantha are three of the patients that have different problems and get taken with Thomas and through the events of the film learn about how to overcome their problems.
Performances – Simon Haycock in the leading role brings the most serious performance, which brings the calm required for his role. Julie Hoult, Danny Steele and Sophie Anderson all do the louder roles well, while Lucy Drive shows her strength even though she is filled with pain.
Story – The story here follows a husband and wife that learn they are expecting a new baby, the day aliens arrive on Earth launching their own attack on the residents of Earth, leading to the people to go on an unexpected journey of self-discovery. The story here does lean heavily into the philosophical ideas of what would happen if aliens visited, while also showing how life can be turned on upside down by people that finally learn their place on the planet. We have a story that does give us moments of foreshadowing and everything does go in a direction, that you won’t see coming, which is a delight to see. The way certain parts of the story unfold might well leave us confused, though the truth will be the one thing that does come out by the end explaining everything we have seen unfolding.
Action/Sci-Fi – The action side of the film is one of the weaker points, because the generic battles and shootings are everything we have seen before and does take us away from the more interesting side of the story. With the sci-fi elements of the film shining on the idea of a sudden alien invasion leaving the humans unaware of what is happening or why.
Settings – The film does get through plenty of locations, with the spacecraft being one of the more uniquely designed ones, we do have the big cities which shows the scale of potential attacks.
Special Effects – When it comes to the effects, we can see the heavy use of the CGI elements to create the worlds, mostly the spacecraft, they do work well enough for the pure scale of the idea involved here.
Scene of the Movie – The journeys through times.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The action scenes take away the thinking side of the film.
Final Thoughts – This is a sci-fi film that does focus on the serious side of the world, taking on bigger steps than just being a generic action film.
Overall: Smart Sci-Fi
