In 2000, the genius of the modern film industry, Paul Verhoeven, director of "Remember Everything," "Basic Instinct" and "Starship Troopers," managed to surprise even the most sophisticated viewer. His fantastic thriller “The Invisible” (front-end actors: K. Bacon, E. Shu, D. Brolin) provides the viewer with a unique opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a real invisibility.
Based on the novel by G. Wells
The name of the American-German fiction thriller with elements of a thriller became another victim of domestic translator adapters. The exact translation of the name of the painting is “Hollow Man”, it was made based on the work of the world famous writer Herbert Wells “The Invisible Man”. But Verkhoven's brainchild has no direct relation to the literary original. In the main role, Kevin Bacon shines - he is invisible, the actors Elizabeth Shue, Kim Dickens, Josh Brolin only set off his charisma. The director, trying to cross Wells' outstanding work with Robert Stevenson’s short story “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” presents a bloody “washcloth” in the underground secret laboratory to the audience, but the film ends with a happy ending, in which traditionally the good defeat the bad.
Short storyline
According to the plot of the film "Invisible", the actors and roles of which are ideally combined with each other, the main character Sebastian Kane (Kevin Bacon) has been developing a drug that causes invisibility for several years. And finally, he manages to achieve a sustainable result, all experiments on animals completed successfully. Animals after the introduction of the drug become invisible, and then return to their normal state. But Kane does not intend to stop there, he decides to become a participant in the experiment and introduces the drug to himself. But the antidote, which was designed to return the visible structure to tissues, does not work in the human body, the scientist cannot return to his usual state. He remains invisible, going crazy from this and sinking more and more into the abyss of vice.
Antagonist scientist
As mentioned above, “Invisibility” is a film whose actors meekly allowed “to pull a blanket over” to the performer of the main male role. This fact is surprising, since the cast of the film is quite powerful. Given that the action mainly develops in the confined space of the underground laboratory, the same characters are mostly in the frame, embodied on the screen by Elizabeth Shue, Kim Dickens, Greg Granberg, Mary Randle, Josh Brolin and Joey Zlotnik. But the ambitious genius performed by Kevin Bacon is inimitable. The actor, thanks to his extraordinary gift of reincarnation, is able to play both a positive and a negative hero, but in this case his dazzling charisma outweighed the charm of all the other movie stars at times. You sympathize with his hero, his character is the main tragic figure. This is where the original name of the painting comes to mind. The main character, rather, is not invisible, he is empty, completely losing his human component: morality, spirituality. In comparison with it, the rest of the group of protagonist scientists is similar to laboratory gray mice. As soon as Kane does not appear in the frame, the narrative becomes boring and uninteresting.
Summary
Invisibility is a film whose actors, with the exception of Kane, could not fully realize their capabilities. The most interesting thing in the picture, according to world film critics, is the virtuoso special effects that clearly demonstrate the transformation of the visible organism into the invisible and vice versa. In this, the creators surpassed themselves. By the way, the experimental animal - the gorilla Isabella - was embodied on the screen by special effects specialist Tom Woodruff, the same one who played the Alien in the famous trilogy. Unfortunately, unlike the Russian comedy "Invisible", the actors and roles of which are known and beloved by the domestic audience, many who have watched the fantastic thriller Paul Verhoeven will not remember the names of his characters. Moreover, the specialist who played the role of the experimental animal.
Invisibility-2
The director Claudio Fach in 2006 removes the sequel to Verhoeven and decides not to be wise with the name, his project is called "Invisible-2." The actors involved in the first part categorically refused to participate in the sequel. In principle, the second part with the first episode has very little in common, the only reminder of the tragic events covered in the first part is a short story about "molecular biology experts who died several years ago." But the key to the success of the tape could be the appearance of one of the surviving characters of the first picture. Most likely, the modest budget did not allow attracting famous actors to the project .
The ensemble of the sequel
The main character, who is shown in the visible state only once, Christian Slater, is invisible. Actors Peter Facinelli and Laura Regan played the roles of the tough policeman and female scientist that the invisible hunts for. The second episode was several times weaker than the original picture, not because of a change in the director or acting troupe, but because the creators practically did not take the time to get to know the characters. Therefore, when 20 minutes after the start of the tape they began to be killed one by one, the viewer was not imbued with sympathy for them. Supporting characters appeared and disappeared, their role in the story of how the second invisibility appeared (the actors did not have time to reveal themselves), was minimized, and the main actors looked very dry and mean.