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| Copyright Universal Pictures |
8.5 out of 10
What made this film enjoyable to me was the performance by Elizabeth Moss, the direction of Leigh Whannell, and consistent buildup to the scares of the film. Elizabeth Moss succeeded in portraying a woman who is determined to fight off a man who controls and psychologically tortures her. The character of Cecilia Kass is a welcome change to the original story as it helps modernize the story and proves that a re-imaging of film can work if done right through certain elements, like the characters. Her performance reminded me of Geena Davis in David Cronenberg’s The Fly, that character worked as she was also determined to get away from a potentially lethal relationship from a man though the contrast was that the man was not dangerous until he was transformed into a monster, while in The Invisible Man, Adrian was already an abusive jerk who liked control. The amount of acting that Elizabeth Moss gives to the character was memorable and made me care for what happened to her in the end as she goes toe to toe with The Invisible Man and to prove she is mentally sane.
Leigh Whannell is also to be commended for this film being successful for me, because his direction was smart and very clever that proved that a reimaging would work instead of a high budget remake like 2017’s The Mummy (Seriously, that movie failed on so many levels that it caused the Dark Universe to be shelved before it even started.) Whannell uses the camera in so many clever ways that there were times where I was even wondering where The Invisible Man was in the film and it makes the scares payoff. I also thought that Whannell also did a great job of keeping me guessing of what was going to happen next though some of the dialogue and twists near the end. It’s clear that after this film, I am becoming of Leigh Whannell as a director and horror writer as he is easily one of the best filmmakers working today, along with his friend, James Wan. I mentioned the buildups throughout the film were consistent and made the scares payoff very well. There are times throughout the film to where the camera pans to a corner or stays in one spot for a significant amount of time, sometimes showing the antics of The Invisible Man. A good example is one scene where Cecilia is making breakfast and goes out of the kitchen for a few minutes and it the scene stays on the same shot until you notice that the gas stove gets hot to the point where the food catches on fire and you also see a knife on the kitchen table fall but not hit the ground, which is the point to where Cecilia walks back in and has to put out the fire. That to me is a scene that is directed really well by Leigh Whannell and ends in a surprise payoff at some point in the film.
So, with all my praises with the film, do I have any issues? Well, it’s really nitpicky but I would say that there is a point in the film where an Uber driver is involved and it’s not clear where he comes from. Also, I did question if The Invisible Man was so smart, how was he going to account for security cameras as there are quite a number of them throughout the film that would’ve caught something during one of his terroristic acts. Again, those are just nitpicky moments that did not dampen my enjoyment of the film. The Invisible Man (2020) is a film that proves that remakes can be good when done as a reimagining that keeps the spirit of the original story but brings something different to the table that makes it modernized to today’s film audiences. I will definitely remember this film and I was glad to see it a good re-imagining of H.G. Wells’ original story. I recommend this to the fans of Leigh Whannell and of Horror remakes that are re-imagined well like John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s The Fly. Trust me, it’s visibly good.
