Director: Leigh Whannell
Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 124 minutes
The Invisible Man (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
People who are into old black-and-white horror movies will probably know the original feature film of The Invisible Man, which was released in 1933. The movie has gained a proper cult following over the years and during the last four years, there have been multiple movies donning the same name as this old classic. While many of these remakes or reinterpretations have fallen into a certain obscurity, we have now arrived at yet another new movie revolving around this premise.
The movie starts off with Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), escaping from her abusive boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). She does so by sneaking out at night, being picked up by her sister and close friend, making sure she’s able to escape. She then goes in hiding with her friend James (Aldis Hodge), and she seemingly picks up the pieces of her broken life again. She seems quite happy, but still afraid Adrian will find her and drag her back to the hell she came from.
Cecilia gets notice that Adrian has died, only a few days later. His brother, Marc (Benedict Hardie), is handling his trust, and invites Cecilia to discuss the terms. She will inherit five million dollars, with monthly deposits, if she remains mentally sane, and does not commit any crimes. These terms already determine the things that will happen. She is also quite suspicious of all of this, as she immediately believes it’s one of Adrian’s ploys to tip her over the edge and punish her for leaving him.
While it is very clear that this movie is supposed to build suspension and leave the viewer to wonder when the ‘invisible man’ will show up and strike, it becomes very stale and boring, before the action even starts. The movie is so slow, you’d actually feel like bailing out on it before things even get properly introduced. Some scenes are well-executed, only to be forgotten mere moments later because of the dull sequences that follow. In all the drowsiness this movie evokes, you can see a certain missed potential, which makes the ordeal even worse.
As far as acting performances go, the movie is quite okayish, but never truly stands out from the crowd. The lead is played by Elisabeth Moss, and she does quite well, and in a way it’s quite refreshing not having a top model in the lead of a movie such as this, but a normal likable person. The rest of the roles get limited screen time, and while the supposed villain of this movie actually plays a lot of his role in a green suit, he hardly has any proper lines.
The Blu-ray version of The Invisible Man comes with a few special features, but most of them revolve around the creation of the film, certain scenes, or even references to the 1933 original. While there are a few extras to be found, most of them only last a few minutes, thus not lengthening the overall experience that much.
Conclusion
The Invisible Man should have remained in the shadows, invisible, as it does not do you any favor by appearing in your physical movie collection. The movie has a few very nicely crafted scenes that showed what it could have been. Instead, we end up with a very dull movie that feels long-winded, boring and very tedious to watch through. As far as horror movies go, this one will definitely put you to sleep if watched in the dark.
The Invisible Man (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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