I found this to be a very, very light take on the old Puppetmasters/Body Snatchers idea. First of all, there is nothing new in it at all really, the idea is exactly the same as it's illustrious forebears and the whole 'setting it in a High School for the teen audience' thing is getting quite hackneyed but it was reasonably enjoyable all the same. The ever-watchable Elijah Wood (next up in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) puts in a decent performance amongst a huge cast of well known faces, some of which have pathetically little to do. There's Salma Hayek, whose commitment to appearing in every Robert Rodriguez film must be grating now she's a big star, who has approximately three scenes, Famke Janssen (about 4), Christopher MacDonald (2 max) and so on and so on. Bebe Neuwirth and Robert Patrick have a bit more to do but the rest is left to the 6 teen leads who basically wander around doing very little except looking at people suspiciously in slow motion.
The fact that the faculty itself is nailed within the first couple of scenes and their cover blown just as quickly leads the film into it's climactic showdown a little too early. I would have preferred a slower, less intense takeover by the aliens which would have allowed a bit more room for minor characters and a bit of are they/aren't they from the good guys. Instead they're convinced in the first couple of minutes of what they see as an alien invasion (what? No Scully?) and there's no going back from there. One nice surprise was the ending itself which combined a funny (if violent) American Football game, some nice special effects and the revelation of who the mother creature really is which, due to some clever finger pointing throughout the film, comes as something of a shock (to me anyway).
The requisite love stories and final pairings though are so pathetically unlikely that I can only assume that they are some kind of in-joke. Anyway, I'd recommend it as a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon but let someone else pay the rental fee or else you'll probably feel a little ripped off by the end. |
