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The Invisible Man Movie Review

The Invisible Man is a 2020 science fiction horror film directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Elisabeth Moss. It’s a flawed, but very strong, entertaining flick.

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“He said that wherever I went, he would find me,

walk right up to me, and I wouldn’t be able to see him“

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After a woman leaves her wealthy, abusive scientist boyfriend, he becomes invincible and chases her everywhere, eventually attempting to kill her. This movie serves as a remake to the original 1933 film, but only in the scientist becoming invisible premise is it a true remake. Other than that setup, the movie is its own thing, which to me was a great choice.

It was a great choice to enliven the “old” material for the new audiences and to include a feminist spin in it. I still love the original and I prefer it over this one, but this is still one of the better remakes in recent memory that is no way, shape or form great, but it’s very good undoubtedly. The toxic male angle worked as it was genuinely frightening how the situations emerging from it could feel so real and disturbing.

Speaking of those situations, the hospital scenes were to me the greatest. Those were perfectly executed in terms of action scenes and genuinely cool and creepy in the suit that we finally got to see in that section of the movie. The entire second act is where the movie reached genuine greatness, especially in all the action scenes – the kitchen sequence is also superb. The horror elements are terrific and they managed to wring genuine fear and thrills out of some moments without ever making them too implausible. The SF elements are also solid, though naturally less emphasized this time around.

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However, the beginning is somewhat slow and I really disliked the twist in the third act. It worked for the protagonist who became even more badass as a result, but that led to a particularly reduced impact and a needlessly complicated, not as smooth ending. But still, Elisabeth Moss killed it in the main role with her best, most interesting role yet. Her facial expressions are particularly pronounced, and thus perfect to express fear and anxiety. I found the supporting characters less developed, but the boyfriend is suitably scary. The Invisible Man is particularly well shot, carefully constructed in most scenes and very well edited and directed by Leigh Whannell.

The Invisible Man is undeniably undone by its very problematic twist ending, but it still remains a different, strong remake with a phenomenal central performance from Elisabeth Moss, and a particularly terrific second act filled with many phenomenal action scenes and great thrills and set pieces.