Invasion - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Invasion



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Invasion, not to be confused with the documentary by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, bears a striking semblance to modern day political scuffles by telling us in the title scrawl that a “rouge nation invades Curacao and Aruba”, only to find out that it isn’t any nation that we know of today in the news. Instead, it turns out to be a fictional nation of Veragua, which seems to be a stand-in for Venezuela from all of the scuttlebutt going on about “who wants to invade who” in the modern world. But, none of that really matters for someone who wants a good action film, or at least a modicum of one.

When the neighboring country of Veragua surprise attacks Curacao and Aruba, the Dutch government is caught with their pants down. Responding as quickly as they can, they organize a plan to strike back, but events on the ground escalate to utter violence. Ground troops try to repel the foreign invaders, while the powers that be desperately try to create an effective counterstrike to drive them back. But the main focus of the film for the audience revolves around 3 young marines trying to work together to rescue a Dutch ambassador who is trying to escape the battle.

The film’s 1st half is what I would consider your typical military action flick. It’s fast, brutal, and has that sort of jingoistic “hoo-rah!” type military members' bravado where they feel like they can take on the world. Arguably, the Veragua soldiers aren’t the brightest bulbs in the box (why are they invading a resort first instead of going straight for the military bunkers nearby?), but past that, it’s a fairly competent action sequence that works well enough. But it’s the second half of the film that dives straight off the cliff without even a hint of telegraphing. Needless to say, I have never changed opinions about a film so quickly as I did with this one. Somehow, it manages to completely ignore the premise of the first hour of the film, going a completely different direction and ending the film with one of the weakest endings I’ve seen in years.

In this instance, the 2nd half just ignores the rest of the invasion going on, and instead focuses on said diplomat who is lost in the jungle. I wouldn’t have had a problem with ignoring the invasion that’s underway for a side mission, but said side mission LITERALLY takes up the 2nd half of the film, and then after they end up rescuing the diplomat, the film just ends. No discussion about the rest of the invasion. No talk about what’s going on. It just ends as if this was a completely different movie, 2nd act shoved into Invasion by mistake, and the editors left it. I was literally flabbergasted trying to accept the juxtaposition of two incongruent film halves that seem to have very little to do with each other. Especially when the NAME of your movie is Invasion.

Honestly, I’m not sure where the blame lies, and I don’t think it’s entirely on the shoulders of director Bobby Boreman. The script is a muddled mess, but he seems to elicit solid performances from his actors and even crafted some well-done action scenes. It’s just that you can’t do much with a script that feels like it’s been chopped down to the bare basics, and give us a film that is very much two movies squished into one.




Rating:

Unrated by the MPAA




Video:

Invasion is presented on Blu-ray with a wonderfully clean and bright-looking 1080p encode in 2.39:1 framing. While the movie may be more of a wet fart, the visuals are not that at all. Shot digitally (most likely, as there’s not much online in the way of technical information on the movie), the film looks spectacularly bright and clean, with a light green tinge to the picture. Olive drab uniforms pop in the Aruba sun, while the luscious greens of the foliage shine during the 2nd half of the film as the group tries to save said Diplomat. The on-site shoot showcases the Aruba wildlife and gorgeous-looking water areas, to the point where I almost wanted to step into the fight just to visit! Blacks are deep and inky, and outside of the typical banding that I see on Well Go USA discs. Bravo, Well Go, Bravo.









Audio:

Invasion features dual DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks, one in English, one in the original Dutch. I’m almost ALWAYS a huge proponent of the original language track being the one to watch, but the English dub is surprisingly good. I watched the film switching between Dutch and English, and the English track actually does an amazing job matching voices to lip movements, and hiring competent voice actors to get the job done. Both tracks are sonically very similar, so choose whichever track you like, as they are both excellent. The film is an action film, and the track represents that with a bombastic mix that is filled with gunfire, explosions that rock you with LFE, and chaotic sequences galore. Simply put, this is a raucous action track with plenty of pizzazz.











Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:

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I wanted to like Invasion from watching the trailer. It seemed like a fun Dutch action movie with a fairly straightforward plot, clocking in at a decent 92 minutes long. The end result tried a bit too hard to be too ambitious, and the end result was two films crammed into one, with a wet squib ending that just sputtered out and….well...ended. The Blu-ray from Well Go USA looks and sounds quite nice, though, so fans of the movie will be pleased with the technical merits of the disc (outside of the very anemic extras, which is to be expected). Otherwise, I’d give this one a pass, or at the most a rental.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Matteo van der Grijn, Gris Blom, Fedja van Heut, Raymond Thirv
Directed by: Bobby Boermans
Written by: Phillip Delmaar
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Dutch DTS-HD MA 5.1, Dutch, English DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, French
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 92 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 22nd, 2025

Recommendation: Low Rental