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The Sequel to the Russian science fiction adventure thriller ATTRACTION (Pritazheniye) is due out soon:
Invasion (Vtorzheniye) - AKA
Attraction 2.
It is three years on from the events of the first film. The young lady who met the aliens (Irina Starshenbaum) has been left with enhanced psychic powers and is under investigation by the miltary establishment. However, her awakened powers elicit interest from forces outside the earth too....
It promises to be a visual feast of epic proportions and is scheduled for release on January 1st - the first day of the winter holidays for Russians.
Fyodor Bondarchuk, the director, is known to be something of a strong Putin loyalist. This, however, does not to reflect in his science-fiction films. I took the first one - Attraction (2017) - to be something of a critique of xenophobia and the sequel, according to what I've heard on the grapevine, takes something of an anti-government line. Perhaps it's just a case of Bondarchuk pandering to his young audience? Or... I don't know what.
The only English language trailer I could find comes from
Variety magazine:
https://variety.com/2019/film/globa...invasion-debuts-trailer-exclusive-1203433647/
N.B We seem to be getting a spate of First Contact/Alien attack movies in Russia at the moment. There is the franchise Outpost (Blackout) - which I mentioned in the horror section - then this, and a film due next year called `Sputnik` which is also about extraterrestrial invasion. This subgenre is new to Russia, as it has not appeared much in their Science fiction previously. Is it just a case of them catching up late with a Western trope? Or d]oes this reflect some current geopolitical preoccupation? Or - as some conspiracists might have it -are Russians being softened up for disclousure?
Guess who'll be sitting in a cinema seat nursing a hangover soon?
Much hyped in Russia and released during the Russian winter holidays -
Invasion - this 12 Certificate two and a quarter hour long blockbuster was what I predicted it to be, in the main: lavish popcorn fodder.
Fyodor Bondarchuk, the director, is best known for his epic war films such as
Stalingrad (2013) and is not a natural science fictioneer. That said, he did also produce
Dark Planet (2008) which is well regarded for havin g stayed close to its Strugatsky brother's source.
Invasion is the sequel to
Attraction of three years back.
The Russians are busy reverse engineering the alien technolgy and have already used this to erect a defensive satellite shield around the earth.
Meanwhile,Yulia (Irina Starshenbaum) seems to have fixed it with her father, and is now studying astrophysics at University but is otherwise under the protection of the military who are investigating her for her special powers that she accrued after meeting the aliens.
A miltary unit, lead by her father is studying all things related to the aliens- including his daughter. They keep her in a flotation tank in the evenings, monitorng her brainwaves. One day, after being deliberately wound up she releases a burst of telekinetic energy which excites the water around her. Later she is in a bar trying to drown her sorrows and suddenly meets Hakon - the alien that she had an affair with in the previous film. He is now earthbound and living a comfortable life in a dacha, but still in contact with the mothership that is still circling the earth (the now iconic vast gyrosscope like structure). It seems that Yulia's outburst has summoned the ship's interest in the
earth...Or something. (I was struggling with the language a bit). Anyway, following a wacky car chase, they both elope and the military go after them - and this leads to a confrontation with the spacecraft which succeeds in drowning Moscow in a flood....
This is a film that tries to please every cinema demographic - part military adventure, part family drama, part romance, and part disaster movie. Starshenbaum is somewhat magnetic and is the main draw of the film - otherwise the most likeable and human character in this film is the one whomis supposed to be an alien - Hakon.
The same technology as in
Attraction is here: the fighting machine with its exoskeleton, the mothership and the amphibious flying buggy - and the ability to manipulate water (in fact the alien ship floods the sky over Moscow). The film was filmed in IMAX and the cinematography and visual effects are impeccable an d state-of-the art.
But it's all bombast and no ideas - and science fiction lives or dies on ideas.
Attraction did have one simple (rather touching) idea: be tolerant towards those you don't understand - but it's sequel has nothing to match even that, unless I was really missing something.
At least
Invasion is reasonably original - I can't compare it to any other one film (but has moments similar to many films) but, considered as Science Fiction I can only give it 5 out of 10. However, if you are someone who enjoys spectacular all action films with a feast for the eyes, then this won't disappoint.
It should be out on DVD with English subtitles soon, I expect.
(Working on a longer review for my blog).