As I said above, director Abel Ferrara seems to be content with providing a few good scares, instead of making the bold political statement one found in the original film. This is fine if one goes into the movie looking for nothing more than mindless sci-fi fun. The special effects are rather good, making the transformation from pod to human replica credible, as well as being more frightening than they were in the past. The movie tends to be rather dark, and while shadow detail is evident, this transfer tends to be somewhat less detailed than that of newer movies. Colors are well saturated, perhaps a bit too much at times, which caused a bit of fuzziness.
Flesh tones appear rather healthy and the blacks are well recreated.
Digital compression artifacts remain in check most of the time. The Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack decodes to standard surround and the mix is pretty good for an older matrixed format. Sound effects are well placed, although not as distinctly as in a discrete track. The climax is pretty lively and the sonics support the on screen action. Dialogue is clean and distinct, except for a couple of moments where the sound effects threaten to overwhelm the actor s voices.