What better prank could possibly be thought up when attempting to promote the most recent Invisible Man movie? What’s really surprising though is that the people who worked on the movie are all that unnerved by the effects that take place before they’re about to be interviewed since they were a part of the movie and as such had to know that effects were being used in order to make things start happening. Kevin Burwick of MovieWeb had more to say on this. That might bring into question just how genuine their reactions were, but to most people it does look as though they were seriously unnerved and weren’t acting quite as much as anyone might think. It’s easy to think that if one is put in a room and is just waiting to talk to another person about a movie that things probably shouldn’t be closing tipping over, or happening for no reason, but then again you’re there to promote a movie in which the same things were happening over and over. So really, how is that such a surprise? It’s still pretty funny to see their reactions and how easily a few of them decide to just up and bug out of the room rather than stick around to see how things turn out. Were this for a supernatural movie that had no easy explanation then it might have been a little more creepy to pull such a prank, but given that this version of the Invisible Man was given an interesting twist to it the prank was fairly well done, especially since it appears so simple for those that know what they’re doing.
For this version of the Invisible Man the premise isn’t too different from what’s been seen in the past, a very narcissistic and psychopathic scientist comes up with a way to move about without being seen, but in this case he terrorizes his wife and begins a reign of terror that is eventually cut off before it can really get started. As one of the older tales that people enjoy this is among one of those that has been tried in the past and has held moderate success since the 1933 version is still easy enough to remember and Hollow Man wasn’t a total bust since it’s still worthy of a little discussion as well. But the idea of domestic abuse in the movie is a real and poignant addition since it creates an updated version of the story that brings the characters into focus and modernizes the tale in a very big way. Some might want to roll their eyes and think that men are being put on blast yet again because the male lead is being shown as an arrogant and controlling individual, but if one goes back to the old H.G. Wells story they’ll find that Griffin, the original Invisible Man, wasn’t an angel, even though he wasn’t exactly the outright villain that this current character is. Many of those that have read the story or paid more attention to the movies that have come since have seen this character as kind of a villain, an egotist, someone that turned invisible for nefarious reasons, when in truth it was a matter of scientific discovery gone awry. Of course the character did become an antagonist eventually due to a serious lack of morality and the continued decline of character that went on during the story. In this new movie it’s kind of obvious that the prime antagonist was already a jerk, and an abusive one at that.
This thriller already looks as though it’s worth the money and the hype, and the domestic violence it highlights might very well be a bit of commentary on the current era and how such matters are handled, but it still adds to the movie in a big way that makes it work. Beatrice Verhoeven of The Wrap has her own opinion on the matter as well. Given how well the premise of the movie works with the idea of domestic violence, disturbing as that might sound, this was obviously a great idea when making a movie. The only regrettable thing is what happens at the end since the same thing tends to happen with each Invisible Man movie, I won’t say any more than that since it’d be better for people to go out and watch so that they get the gist of it. But think of how terrifying it might be to change the ending just enough that there’s no real hope of a sequel, but the thought that someone is out and about without being seen, able to do anything, at any time, without anyone being the wiser. Now how unnerving would THAT be for an ending?
The prank though is pretty funny since it does make a few of them jump right out of their seats, and it would have been great to be there to see how genuine their reactions were.
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