Invasie

I normally don't leave reviews here but this was so bad I just had to warn others. Did not know if I had to laugh or cry watching this. This is a typical Dutch movie of this era. Bad actors (always the same ones), bad script and no budget and terrible CGI. Why does Dutch cinema always use the same 15+ actors and actrices in every single movie they make??? The actors act like they have never acted before (the professional soldiers used in the film as extras act much better), the storyline is laughable at best but mostly totally unbelievable. I cannot imagine that someone at the Dutch department of defense thought it would be a good idea to participate in this. In fact, it makes me angry realizing that the Dutch department of defense wasted my tax money on this disaster of a movie. Because that is what this is. A recruiting movie for the Dutch military but only done very very badly. The 4.9 it has now does not do it justice. It should be a 0.1. Don't watch this and go waste your time on something else. You will thank me later.

The movie is oke and fine if you have nothing to do. A lot of inaccuracies with makes a Marvel movie more realistic than this one. It starts fine, but it takes quite some time to gain some context on what is happying and initial introduction of characters is a waste of time as they are completely irrelevant to the story. The focus is completely removed from those characters and the context created.

And then the end.. the movie stops suddenly without a solid or plausible end making the 1,5 hours a waste of your life.

Acting is fine, but nothing special.

I have no idea how this is in line, in respect to quality, with Mocro Maffia.

I enjoyed the recent works from Bobby Boermans, like High Flyers, Mocro Maffia and especially the Golden Hour. Seeing the trailer I was really hyped for his next project, but I was honestly disappointed. It lacked a decent story. 'First female marine' line that continued through the movie was odd. There isn't a female marine so it would be a true achievement, but keep emphasizing it turned it into a running joke or a cheap line. The gunfights were subpar as well. You can find more interesting fights in youtube videos with a signifcantly lower budget. VFX was really good though, props to PlanetX. Gijs Blom has shown his acting chops in The Forgotten Battle, but his character in Invasie was plain and boring. This movie, like many other Dutch movies, lacks mostly in writing and partially in direction. Even with great sound, great visuals and a decent budget, it can't compensate for a lack of story.

Invasion is a new action thriller directed by Bobby Boermans. Director of App, Claustrofobia and Fissa. Since Fissa, he has focused more on directing TV series in recent years.

In the film, the Dutch ABC Islands are attacked by neighboring country Veragua. Here is a dictator in power who wants revenge on the Netherlands and is therefore attacking the Antilles.

Three young, novice marines must resist and keep a Dutch ambassador safe while this enemy invasion is underway.

In recent years, director Bobby Boermans has been more concerned with directing TV series such as Mocro Mafia and the Golden Hour. His last directing work was with the film Fissa in 2016. Taking up directing work again after eight years does not seem to go so smoothly for him. The story in this film is told very hastily without any real clear explanation or character development.

The enemy invasion also happens a bit too quickly and simply to really take it seriously. You would expect somewhat better defense in the Netherlands Antilles. The film playfully makes it look like the continent of Australia during a simple Risk game. Through too many coincidences they also try to get away with excesses why there is little security or other personnel.

For an action thriller about a military attack, the film lacks real tension. The film often remains on the predictable side. Furthermore, the film lacks a real threatening form of the attacking enemy. This threat is also easily resolved in the end.

Many action scenes are also animated or contain too many edits between the scenes. This can make many of these scenes difficult to follow. You can sometimes only tell the different groups of soldiers apart if you can see the flag of which country they belong to on their uniforms.

The cast members try to perform appropriately in this film, but due to the rushed aspects of the story, most of them have little room to do something with their characters. For example, you don't really know what their names are for most of them, or what their backstory exactly is. Because of this, there are also few good reasons to really care about most of the characters. Some have some small comedic moments, but most of these are also on the predictable side, or have already been given away in the trailers.

In short: the invasion happens, heroes need to rescue someone, there's a lot of stress but will they manage? Sure this isn't an art house movie, but don't mind all the nitwit reviews by people who don't like an action movie in which they speak Dutch. Story line is to the style, the acting is ok and the tension is there. And yes, as ex military, it's not even close to reality. But which action movie is? And the Caribbean islands might be mixed up. But who cares? It's a movie, it's entertainment and this one does the job. I gave it a +1 score because of all the bad reviews. Which I normally wouldn't do but this one deserved it.