Movies: The Faculty

Ever see the end of a movie, only to watch the movie in its entirety many years later? "The Faculty," directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Kevin Williamson, is one of those movies that I just caught the tail end of on TV. Starring perennial girly-man Elijah Wood, the movie ends with a typical big dumb CGI sequence (complete with a one-liner delivered by Frodo himself). Thankfully, the rest of the movie is a passable take on the sci-fi/horror alien takeover theme.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then there's a lot of flattery here. To be fair, the script is certainly self-aware; much like "Scream," Williamson's other major foray into horror, the characters are aware of the "rules" and figure that into the plan. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Puppet Masters" are both mentioned and described in the movie, so in truth "The Faculty" is more like a pastiche or homage than a blatant cash-in.

Still, the lifts from the aforementioned movies, as well as a beat-for-beat remake of the famous blood test scene from "The Thing," start to feel a little, well, cheap. I can only take so much meta-sci-fi before I start going for the door. To make matters worse, most of the high-school scenes ring a bit false. I can understand playing around with the typical high-school stereotypes, but at times the characters sound like they're acting out a deleted scene from "Dawson's Creek."

Experienced character actors like Robert Patrick and Bebe Neuwirth anchor the movie, thankfully. The young stars, including Josh "My voice is a cheerless monotone" Hartnett, are uneven, but form a competent ensemble. If you have a choice, either the 1958 or 1978 versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is better than this movie, but it's a decent flick to pass the time.

Rating: 7/10