Invasion Planet Earth (2019)

Directed by: Simon Cox | 98 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: Simon Haycock, Lucy Drive, Julie Hoult, Danny Steele, Sophie Anderson, Jon Campling, Toyah Willcox, Michael Bott, Kate Davies-Speak, Julian Boote, Ian Brooker, John Dyer, Nina Stratford, Ben Shockley, Craig Rogers, Cameron Moon, Koral Niel, Philip Jennings, Amira Whitaker, Roger Harding

Alien life with evil in mind is a favorite subject for millions of science fiction films. Also in ‘Invasion Planet Earth’. The danger in this case comes from an unexpected angle, because it is not so much the aliens that come into the picture, but the makers of this film that you really should be afraid of. They can eat away an hour and a half of your life without any hesitation. Time that you will never get back and that is filled with cranky acting and cringe-inducing one-liners. In this case, consider the reviewer of this film as the hero who must protect the earth from imminent danger. The critic poses as a patron and sacrifices his precious time to save others from this painful cinematic exercise. Someone has to do it!

In ‘Invasion Planet Earth’, our planet is under attack by an alien threat. While humanity arms itself against these evil aliens, the main characters in this film struggle with other issues. Thomas Dunn, for example, lost his faith in religion after the death of his daughter. Is that still okay?

‘Invasion Planet Earth’ is a shockingly bad film that drips with amateurism. The camera work is incredibly unimaginative (especially long shots and a lot of clichéd setups in which people talk with their backs to each other). The acting is wooden and numb. You see people spooning up their texts. There is clear articulation, so that any form of emotion disappears. The dialogues are cringe-inducing (“You can’t understand me. Nobody does that”) and the sets are static. It’s almost impossible to empathize with the characters.

You’ve seen all the scenes in another movie before. The grieving man in the cemetery, the conversation with the angry and misunderstood teenage daughter, the two teachers who talk about their private lives in the canteen: this film by Simon Cox is a series of chewed-out passages.

When the aliens finally show up after a long time, the film turns into a CGI feast. If there’s one thing ‘Invasion Planet Earth’ proves, it’s that there are worse things than a malicious alien invasion. They go for the quick kill, while this movie goes for a slow painful torment. You will never get this hour and a half of your life back. In addition, you will always be haunted by memories of this failed sci-fi movie that is so dull and dull it hurts.