Cast: Sam Neill, Golshifteh Farahani, Shioli Kutsuna
creators: Simon Kinberg, David Weil
Streaming platform: Apple TV+
Invasion stars: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
First three episodes of Invasion is available on Apple TV+ with the evocative images of the beautiful opening still in the eyes, overcome by the painful images they convey. The series, available with the first three episodes on Apple TV + from October 22 and then weekly until December 10, had us intrigued since the first trailer and did not disappoint expectations with this incipit confirming the goodness of the work it brings. the platform ahead. As for the Foundation, the investment in this new production is clear, including exteriors in various locations around the world, a rich cast and a high impact visual system.
Invasion Review: Episodes 1 to 3 The Story
The title speaks for itself: Invasion tells an alien Invasion and does it in a subtle way, we’d venture to say if there weren’t already some high-impact sequences from the first episodes. It does this indirectly, through different points of view and perspective, taking us to different locations around the world, from Tokyo to New York, London or Kandahar, to allow us to gradually reveal what is happening, through more or less events. Mysterious and more or less explicit events: among swarms of crazy insects, children with nosebleeds, explosions and interference, the extraterrestrial presence on our planet becomes more and more apparent.
Different perspectives because there are many and varied looks that intercept and investigate these phenomena in one way or another. All kinds of people scattered around the world, be it the communications officer of the Japanese space agency Mitsuki played by Shiori Kutsuna or the sheriff of Sam Neill, John Bell Tyson, or even the soldier Trevante Ward of Shamier Anderson and Aneesha Malik of Golshifteh Farahani with his family problems. Simon Kinberg and David Weils immerse us in their lives, using them as a veil through which we can perceive fragments of the invasion we are undergoing, as they examine the protagonists’ souls, their problems and their difficulties, even before the global drama in the making, making it a filter to perceive these different declinations of humanity.
This last decision invites the viewer to get closer to the stories, to try to understand what happens to one and the other, without forgetting the end of the story. Invasion: The Earth is in danger. Under this idea, the actors react in a remarkable way; especially the main characters: Anderson, Farahani, Kutsuna and Barratt offer a variety of registers that enrich everything that happens as they facilitate different emotional pathways. While some productions travel to other planets, Invasion reminds that interacting with others is also a journey.
Invasion Assessment and Analysis
There is no lack of spectacle and visual ambition, because Invasion does not renounce an elegant staging, suggestive in photography, commendable in the care for settings and situations. Thanks to the in-depth scripts, but also to the two directors Jakob Verbruggen and Amanda Marsalis, who manage the timing of the scripts well in a perfect balance between atmosphere, analysis of the characters and their dramas, new clues about the alien invasion, suggest more than show. In terms of atmosphere, merit is certainly due to the soundtrack composed by Max Richter, which supports and emphasizes the events, being present but not intrusive.
So a promising start for Invasion, a series that tells the alien invasion unlike what many blockbusters of the past have done, evocative, without visual excesses and with a reasoned rhythm, leading us to the heart of the story and of the characters.
Ward offers one of the most prominent transformations in Invasion, with an order that almost seems like a manifesto from the writers: the soldier giving up his weapon to save a handful of lives. As the series progresses, each person’s searches begin to integrate them with others. This is also the case with Barratt, who is one of Invasions most poignant leads Casper Morrow. From a source that gets details of Strange things, Morrow has a strange connection to what threatens Earth. But the most dangerous thing for him at first is not that relationship, but bullying.
A seam of the series is discovered by him, as his relationship with the aliens is not entirely clear. If aliens can change their shape and handle different elements, how do they get into the child’s mind? Invasion as well as those questions, leave several doors open. Within them are the roles of Farahani and Kutsuna. The richest weight of the story falls on them, with feminism, motherhood, love tensions and the representation of the LGTBIQ+ community in complex circumstances.
Invasion Review The Final Words
To conclude the review of the first episodes of Invasion, we reiterate the satisfaction with the first steps of the new Apple TV + series, which can tell us about an alien invasion without relying on the purely visual show, rather than the characters , their personal drama in the middle and proposing clues. and details little by little, creating a curated and rich image, which promises to be curated throughout the first season. A setting that works both for the writing of the two authors and for the rehearsals of the various artists who are able to effectively convey the emotions of their respective characters, without neglecting Max Richter’s gripping soundtrack.
