Invasion (1997– ) User Reviews

What is "This Thing" called, love?

[Bernie4444 · 6/10 · 19 January 2024]

Robin Cook's Invasion of 1997 is a product of its time. By today's standards, the miniseries is rather bland. However, it is still worth watching.

Do not let the full-screen format get in your way.

The title of the program gives away the full story. Starting with a pebble in a parking lot which changes Beau Stark's (Luke Perry) plans, personality, and sexual prowess. Can his girl (Rebecca Gayheart) manage the new Beau, or will she need the skills of Dr. Sheila Moran (Kim Cattrall) to correct Beau's ambitions before it is too late for the rest of us?

We have plenty of opportunities to kibitz with "don't do that," and "stay in the car."

Been there, done that.

[jconde999 · 8 July 2003]

A virus, presumably of extraterrestrial origin, takes over human beings.

By the numbers made-for-tv movie travels down well-known territory with few redeeming virtues. The familiar story is padded with mumbo jumbo galore and cheesy special effects. Even though the acting by most of the cast is decent, there is little else to be remembered.

Recommended only to desperate diehards craving for their sci-fi daily shot!!! With due respect to the canine breeds, skip this dog of a movie and go for the real thing. Rent out Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Village of the Damned and the underrated Independence Day or any of those wonderful campy sci-fi B-movies of the 50's... and treat yourself to a pleasurable Saturday afternoon and don't forget the right words: Klaatu barada nikto!

Rating: 2/10.because of beautiful locations.

This Is Punishment

[lesliecurtin · 1/10 · 27 October 2018]

Robin Cook usually writes a great story. This adaptation of his novel is horrible. Don't waste your time.

Epically Cheesy, but a fairly enjoyable piece of TV sci-fi

[Samiam3 · 7/10 · 27 April 2010]

There is something about movies like Invasion that I get a kick out of and admire is a small way. Material like this feels like a throwback to the fifties and sixies, the dawn of sci-fi. I suppose that judging by those standards, one could make the argument that Battlefield Earth is a success, which may not be such a smart thing to do aloud. Regardless, Invasion is very cheesy, but it is amusing.

One night over Arizona, a shower of little black stones rains down on a city. The first to fondle of these stone is Beau Stark, an ordinary law abiding fellow. The tiny thing gives him an electric shock and before long he has a flu, which is messing with his mind. As more people handle the black pebbles scattered across town, the flu starts to spread, first across town then across Arizona and eventually the country. Stark is rallying his fellow infected citizens together to become part of some major plan to build a gateway to space which will (somehow) spell doom for humanity as we know it. Stark's girlfriend teams upwith a handful of Rogue doctors to try an find a cure, while everyone around is out to get them.

So what makes something like Invasion any better than say Battlefield Earth? It's a tough argument to make, but not impossible. For one thing Battlefield Earth feels muddled and badly paced, while this more is more temporaly believable (on account of being a three part programme of course). Time duration is very important for the credibility of a thriller or adventure story. More importantly, in Battlefield Earth you really don't care what happens to people. Here you end up actually rooting for and against who you are supposed to.

There are times when Invasion feels a little slow, and there are definitely some things that need to be changed, but the programme in general, is a good source of cheesy B-movie sci- fi. I don't know where you would find something like this, and I doubt if it will get any airtime in the future, but if it just happpens to be on the box one night and there is nothing else on (assuming you are a sci-fi geek) may as well watch for a bit.

did they even read the book?

[robnels2000 · 1/10 · 21 April 2005]

I finished the book just 3 days before this mini series aired the first time so the story was fresh in my mind.

They kept the main characters and the very basics of the story.

And though the rest out.

I kept watching each night in horror, hoping it would improve.

It never did.

The main characters where so over acted and poorly done it was just painful to see. And the plot was so hokey; I swear I saw it once in a Saturday morning cartoon.

I think they should pass a law, before you can turn a book into a movie the screenwriters and director should have to read the book first.

From now on I'll skip anything made from a book I liked.

Entertaining Sci-Fi

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 17 March 2023]

In Phoenix, the social assistant Beau Stark (Luke Perry) and the substitute teacher Cassy Winslow (Rebecca Gayheart) live together and are in love with each other and Beau proposes to marry her. Their best friend, the medical student Pitt Henderson (Christopher Orr) is happy with the news. When Beau returns to his car, he sees a black stone that felt from the sky and when he touches it, he feels bad in a sort of influenza. When other black stones fall from the sky, there is an epidemic of influenza in Phoenix and Dr. Sheila Moran (Kim Cattrall) tries to convince his director to summon the CDC, but he says that it is not necessary. Soon Beau changes his behavior and Cassy tells Pitt. Their further investigation shows that RH- people have stranger reaction after touching the black stone that activates a latent virus in the humans that mutates them into an alien breed. Now Sheila, Cassy, Pitt and a few other humans are trying to find an antibody to save the human race. But no one can be trusted.

"Invasion" is an entertaining sci-fi, with a storyline that recalls "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Stargate". In 1997, it was an underrated film, but re-watching in the present days, the viewer realizes that the story has not aged and the special effects and make-up are still good. Unfortunately, this film was only released on VHS in Brazil. It is also great to see the gorgeous Rebecca Gayheart and Kim Cattrall very young. The conclusion is failed since other countries have been also invaded and the airborne gas is only used in Phoenix. Maybe the third episode would provide a better conclusion to the story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Epidemia Mortal" ("Deadly Epidemic")

Stop please stop

[azzabar2003 · 1/10 · 3 April 2006]

After seeing this movie, all that I can say is, "Scifi channel please stop making movies." They can at least stop making movies that suck so bad. Between the crappy acting and the bad, bad, bad editing of the actual story the movie needed to be burned. It gave me a headache and my eyes were burning by the end. It amazes me that there are people out there that would give this, heap of needs to be shredded film a 10 and say that they need to make more like it. UH! WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE! Wow, now that I got that out, I feel much better! Thanks for letting me rant. How in the world does IMDb expect me to write 10 lines of comment on this steaming pile of a movie.

Seen It All Before

[Theo Robertson · 2/10 · 9 March 2003]

Space debris falls from the sky and begins to infect people by controlling them . Where have I seen that plot before ? let me see now THE PUPPET MASTERS , THE BLOB , THE THING , the first three QUATERMASS serials , INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and umpteen DOCTOR WHO stories . It`s impossible not to be reminded of these stories while watching INVASION . It`s also impossible not to be reminded that they all did the same story a whole lot better than INVASION did also

Better than it's budget would normally allow.

[stump69 · 9/10 · 12 January 2002]

I didn't see this miniseries in its original run in 1997, but watched it last week in a rerun on the SCIFI channel because of Robin's Cook's involvement. All of his work (books, screenplays, miniseries) has been consistently good. (Remember "Coma"?). This one was no different. I thought it was an interesting story, played seriously by a better than average cast. Luke Perry plays the leading man, the first to be infected by the alien virus, and his girlfriend (the extremely cute Rebecca Gayheart) who becomes the one to try to save him from it with the help of a molecular biologist in the person of Kim Catrall. As I enjoy most 'virus' type movies (Outbreak, The Stand), I enjoyed this one, too. I give it a 9 out of 10 for a TV miniseries.

Worse than "The Blob"

[Kansas-5 · 1/10 · 20 January 2008]

Luke Perry is not Steve McQueen, but there's no one who could save this stinker. The plot leaps from one disconnected implausibility to another.

I can't imagine how anyone could sit through this to the end, no matter how adept they might be at willful suspension of disbelief. I assume the investors needed a tax deduction.

The Robin Cook novel is said to be better. It's hard to imagine how it could be worse.

It's the only thing on television? Go take a walk instead. You'll feel better and won't have wasted your time.

Take a nap, even.

Or, there's always South Park.

An okay miniserie

[martymaster · 5 December 2001]

As all other miniseries,this one is also a b-movie,but a b-movie doesnt necessary have to mean that it is a bad movie.It just has a lower budget and more unknown actors. This movie has actually gotten two actors which is quit famous,Luke Perry and Rebecca Gayheart. Luke Perry is known for his role in Beverly Hills 90210,and Rebecca Gayheart has played in movies such as,Scream 2,Urban legend 1 & 2 and From dusk til dawn 3.

The story is about a small rock who fell from the sky,nobody seems to know anything about it,but when someone touches it they get a virus who takes control of them.

The movie is scary at times and one of the better miniseries I have seen.

Disappointing

[knutt · 3/10 · 22 July 2006]

From time to time I watch a movie and get a sense of "detaching" from the action on-screen. Let me explain: Normally I concentrate on the story and stay focused all the way through, even though fellow movie watchers in a theater disturb me or even when we take short breaks when watching at home to get something to eat, bathroom breaks or whatever. I get back into the story like THAT. But then - sometimes I watch this movie that make me lose concentration and think: "What the h..ll?" and the movie experience is gone.

"Robin Cook's Invasion" is in that category. The all over feel of the movie gave me a feeling like somebody did not use their brains when making this movie. I mean, many of the elements of the movie did not explain very well - like the date shaped rocks raining down. Why did they have to float in the air over the waste basket? Why did it insert a black goo that had to look like saliva a moment later? When did meteor rocks land on top of sand without making even a tiny dent in it? What was the purpose of the vortex of fire that brought the first stone home (as in - WHY did the first stone go home)? I had huge problems understanding why the aliens poised a threat to Earth, why the aliens wanted to alter the human race, why it was bad if the portal opened and, for that matter, why the stupid space ship blew up because Beau lost his grip on the power dial (or whatever it was).

The looks of the "intelligent thingy" inside the stone. Complete with a huge brain, angry eyes and all was just too much. If I am not mistaken, they even managed to call that thingy the VIRUS. Woohoo! An intelligent virus! What exactly was their intended audience here? Children? No - they had some feeble attempts at sex scenes. I think their intended audience must have been the one with lesser IQ. Sorry, this movie did nothing for me.

Bad Screenplay-not like the book at all.

[jacobebernstein · 1/10 · 3 July 2010]

While the movie itself was not terrible. However, the movie did not follow the movie closely enough. It disregarded all the scientific basis of the cure that was in the book, they used another virus to drive the virus into the lytic cycle which released it from the host and allowed it to be killed by oxygen. By not following the book, the movie became unrealistic and just a scifi movie, which the book was a little scifi but with mostly scientific reasoning. The movie ruined the original idea of the book. If I was Robin Cook, i would be very disappointed with the movie and the poorly written screenplay. The movie forgot to mention the love triangle of beau, cassy, and Pitt as well. The screenplay was way to different from the book. The acting was pretty good though.

Great job by Luke Perry,.he helped to make it better than it is. He is missed

[ajsboys · 9/10 · 20 February 2022]

There is an app FilmRise that has this movie, it is shown in three episodes, it is dated 1969 (could be a mistake on their part) it is titled "Robin Cook's Invasion "

Hokey, cheesy, dumb, pedestrian mini-series

[xorys · 14 March 2003]

Hokey music, cheesy special effects, a really dumb script, and heavy-handed, pedestrian direction, all drawn out to great lengths - is this a movie? No, clearly it's a TV mini-series, and a poor one at that. The only thing that might attract you to it is some meaningful acting talent, and that certainly is present. I was drawn into watching it by the presence of Kim Catrall and Rebecca Gayheart, both of whose work I've previously admired... but don't make the same mistake. Truly, it's not worth it. Give this one a miss.

Weak sad mini-series

[TheEmulator23 · 15 December 2002]

Really a disappointment from the book. The effect's are laughable, and the acting is pretty embarassing. I would not recommend this mini-series at all. If you want to see a good mini-series, rent "Band of Brothers." Whatever happened to Luke Perry anyway? The only two people that still have career's are Kim Catrall and Neal McDonough.

Unfinished and never will be... Don't bother

[LaoagMikey · 18 September 2016]

This was a 2-episode "series" that ends without any resolution except the the aliens are winning. Will they take over the world? We will never know...

This is a rip-off of "The Body Snatchers" without regrets. It has the same themes and progression of plot line, as far as it goes. And it does not go very far. 90 minutes if you see it all together or 2 unfulfilling episodes, seen separately.

The acting is OK. The direction is OK. The story is "we've seen this before" boring. And just as it is getting good, it ends without an ending.

Don't bother. Go watch the original and enjoy. Or even the remake of "The Body Snatchers" is pretty good but this pretty much stinks.

Don't bother!