Invincible (2001 TV Movie) User Reviews

An absolutely terrible and laughably bad film

[MovieAddict2016 · 3/10 · 27 December 2005]

When this was being advertised on TBS back in 2001, every single ad featured Mel Gibson and Jet Li's names. They were only producers, but you wouldn't know it by the extent to which their names were featured.

I thought the film looked good back then - some kind of "Matrix"/"Highlander" clone, maybe, but it still looked kinda interesting. Well, I was wrong.

From the opening - with this angelic warrior being pursued by, and then fighting, Billy Zane - the film only becomes worse and worse. It copies "The Matrix" mercilessly - from the wannabe philosophy that stems throughout every scene to the slow-motion sword fights.

Billy Zane gives an embarrassingly dull performance and the rest of the cast - mostly B-movie actors or TV actors - don't help any.

The plot is silly to begin with. The Shadow Warriors are trying to bring an end to the world - replace "Shadow Warriors" with any other bad guy name from another psycho-baddie movie and you've got the exact same plot.

Billy Zane assembles together a group of warriors to help defend earth against the Shadow Warriors.

The ending of the film is so laughable it's almost painful to watch. I would never sit through this again and certainly would never recommend it to anyone else.

"Invincible" to criticism it is not.

Terrible, but damn did the previews look good.

[n8gray315 · 3/10 · 16 July 2003]

Wow, this is a prime example of previews making a movie look awesome. I rented Equilibrium and saw the previews for Invincible, and I said to myself, "Wow that looks really good!" Wow was I wrong, terrible acting, poor lighting, sad fights and the supporting roles made me want to vomit! Do yourself a favor do not rent movies on the basis of their previews, trust me I should know! -n8gray315

Not quite a waste of time

[AmamiAmane · 4/10 · 9 March 2013]

The plot was too obvious, plain and the way all the symbolism was used was overt. This is what I hate the most about movies. I cannot see the point for making this movie. The characters were not developed and there was no chemistry between them. The only chemistry built was between the character portrayed by Billy Zane and the other characters. Terrible acting, apart from Billy Zane, and no I am not a fan of him. He was the only one who did the best job on this movie and put effort and talent in it. Oh man, and all the stunt wires clearly visible, as if the stunt coordinator was too lazy to notice. I give 3 because despite plenty of trash movies on TV (e.g. "The Hangover") "The Invicibles" is the movie worth watching and +1 is for Billy Zane's good job. Basically, I can say this movie is about New Age movement.

The most awesomely bad movie ever.

[vagabondjonson · 5 September 2007]

OK, if you've got the chops to put "matrix-like action" on your movie poster then you either have a really incredible martial arts film or you have "Invincible". Now my college roommate and I got such a kick out of this movie, we did our best to put it into out monthly movie line-up just so we could make fun of it. Billy Zane is classic Billy Zane in this movie. He has the quality of making dialogue that is incredibly inane seem incredibly important. At no point during this movie was there anything that even remotely resembled "matrix-like action" and the actors who play the martial arts studs all look like Ralph Macchio could probably stuff them in a locker. Like most "martial arts" movies the plot is stodgy at best but this is hidden by the fact that the special effects were created by hamsters. If you are a fan of train wrecks and mine cave-ins, this is a movie for you.

that was dire

[dr-mtarver · 1/10 · 3 July 2006]

Got to be one of the cheesiest martial flicks I have ever seen. The fight scenes were pathetic, and the scripting made you realise the virtues of the silent films. I think the actors must have crawled into their trailers at the end of the day and climbed into a bottle just to forget. Why on earth did the heroes spend so much time doing martial arts training in an indoor pond? So many times Billy Zane was droning on about something or other while sloshing around in jammies in ankle deep water. The character development was non-existent. There is nothing about this film which you could recommend except perhaps the camera work.

Had potential

[cuthien_ah · 5/10 · 2 October 2005]

I was drawn to this movie by the fact Jet Li was involved with it. As a big fan of his work I know he always pulls off a great movie. The storyline seemed interesting as well, combining my favourites of action and make-believe.

The overall theme of Good and Love overcoming all evil is, one might say, an overused plot line but this had great potential. It was focused around two groups, the evil Shadowmen and the Good Elements. The Elements though were super evolved humans, chosen before birth but in a twist they were lead by a reformed Shadowman, Os. Not just any reformed Shadowman either but the most black hearted of them all, who killed one of the elements and best friend to the leader of the Shadowmen.

The basic story is the Shadowmen want to destroy the earth to return home and Os has just 6 days to locate and train the remaining 4 elements to stop him. However it was poorly done. The fight scenes were brief and sloppy as well as being few and far between. There was too much dialogue in this movie and the message of Love overcoming all evil was pounded into you from the first second and quite frankly made you sick of the whole concept. By the end I wanted the Shadowmen to win just to stick it to Os, who came across as a tree-hugging hippie type character.

Luckily I only bought this for a couple of quid but I am shocked that Jet Li even came within 1000 ft of this movie. I was severely disappointed with this and suspect that it would have been more enjoyable had I seen it a few years ago when I was unable to judge or care about how good a film was presented.

I would only recommend you watch this if it costs you nothing to do so. A severe let down.

Great premise but lackluster execution

[harrisw · 5/10 · 19 November 2001]

The promos for Invincible promised excitement and action that I had never seen before. The first half-hour showed promise with a great premise and setup, but the rest of the movie fell flat. Instead of building on the premise of the movie, it settled for a simple plot and even that was not executed very well. There were a couple of good action sequences in the beginning, but as the movie progressed the action became flat as well. A lot of flash, but no substance. With a story that had a lot of promise, it's a shame Invincible was vulnerable to poor execution and writing.

...Prepared for the worse so I found it OK!

[Naoum · 5/10 · 20 March 2005]

Having read the bad reviews prior to seeing this movie I was prepared to stop seeing it in case it became unbearable. Well it wasn't unbearable, of course it wasn't good either. It lies somewhere in the middle ground and it is saved by the fact that it presents a fairy tale.

The acting isn't great since the characters are out of proportions and fail to present something believable. OK, so this is a fairy tale, you don't have to be sarcastic about it!!! I believe that the actors where quite distant from their roles since they were playing characters from a fairy tale. That isn't a prerequisite though...

What I really enjoyed was the narration by Billy Zane's deep voice. It's a powerful element of the movie.

It's a movie that you should only see if you can't find something better to rent and you are bored of searching through the selves!

What... The...

[paperflower15 · 1/10 · 18 May 2007]

...Hell...

Enter "Invincible," a world where Good guys fight Bad guys with swords, kung-fu and mind tricks. Er actually... Where they fight Bad guys with children's toys, poser acrobatics and sissy slaps, and wag-your-finger, spiritual blocking moves.

Before-seen special effects permeate this arrangement of b-movie or otherwise unknown actors as they hunt for evil in search of the doomsaying "Tablet." Billy Zane puts on The Matrix's Morpheus' shoes and finds them impossibly big to fill out, seeking would-be heroes to assist him on his journey to retake the Tablet from Slate, whose performance in the movie could make one wonder why her never said "Mr. Anderson!" I've seen scripted scenes of martial arts sparring between friends that have been submitted on YouTube with more credibility than what this film could offer, and while those submissions generally contained no plot, they at least did not deceive me by having one like "Invincible's," that grazed so un-elegantly across the movie's surface.

Terrible acting, useless karate gimmick poses, effects reminiscent of the early 90's, and I don't even have the heart to finish this sentence... Avoid, this, completely.

what a shame

[lars_1973 · 1/10 · 5 October 2006]

As far as I can remember today I have seen this movie for the first time on free-TV in my home country Germany and now I understand the reason. I guess the story is really well known: There is a hero named Os played by Billy Zane (yes, it is astonishingly true, that this truly second rate performer was allowed to play the opponent of Leonardo Di Caprio in the worldwide blockbuster "Titanic"), who concentrates some comrades-in-arms to rescue the world and the human race from the evil namely the demon Slate. This demon wants to destroy the whole world by using a very old, coded blackboard. His problem is that he is just in hold of one half of the board. The other half is owned by the before mentioned demon Os who is a former demon (what an interesting and funny coincidence that he is also a demon). So Os is the only one who is able to stop him. This hero, now has to build up his team that -what a big surprise- finally will win. We all had the possibility and luck to see many other movies about this issue in a much better way before. The unknown actors (now I also understand the reason for the fact of their anonymity) play halfhearted and just bad. Lousy effects, cruel actors, even worse screenplay. Apropos remembrance of this never wished for movie. You will definitely understand me as soon as you were afflicted with this sorry effort.

What were you thinking Mel and Li?

[TerminalMadness · 2/10 · 24 November 2001]

Wow, this is a baaad movie. The plot is slow, the acting is laughable, the entire concept is cliched, and the special effects of very low quality. I stuck with it until the end, but I had a bad taste in my mouth. Poor Billy Zane. Such a good actor yet subjects himself to this piece of tripe. The only commendable thing about this movie that made it watchable was the dialogue. The dialogue was witty, snappy, and fresh.

And was it me or was that black guy the most stereotypical black character ever? Dumb dialogue like "This is my dream, baby" or "You're supposed to be the freaky voodoo mystic man." He might as well have had an afro, bell-bottoms, and said, "You dig?" Eck. This is horrible.

A Great, Made-For-Tv Flick.

[d_bartuccio · 9/10 · 21 November 2001]

I caught a preview for this movie on TBS and vowed to watch after I saw Billy Zane starred. The production team of Mel Gibson and Jet-Li leave their mark with the action. The movie literally starts with a sword fight.

The story is strong enough to hold you attention for the moments where the action tapers off. But the acting is stronger. Billy Zane plays smug, sarcastic and zen-like all with one smirk. David Field is appropriately camp and Tory Kittles, Byron Mann (Street Fighter, The Corruptor), Stacy Oversier and Dominic Purcell play their roles with convincing disbelief and later acceptance.

If you have a chance to see this, take the time. It's well worth it. I hope it is released on DVD...I'm betting the special features and interviews would be interesting.

Just about OK

[henry-girling · 6/10 · 6 May 2003]

If you are in undemanding mood then 'Invincible' is OK. It isn't original but it looks pretty and the fight scenes adequate for a TV movie. It obviously is a calling card for a series but any series without Billy Zane would be a big mistake.

Billy Zane is the best thing in 'Invincible' and even makes the dialogue about love (much derided in other Imdb reviews) tolerable. His character Os, not understanding everything but having fun like a child let loose in a fairground, is very watchable and his dry humour is fun. The rest of the actors are bland and uninteresting.

Captain Planet and Highlander shouldn't be mixed.

[SimianLogic · 3/10 · 2 December 2001]

I expected much more from producers Mel Gibson and Jet Li. Each of them should know enough about movies to avoid the stinkers, and Invincible is definitely a stinker. The plot seems to be a weird mish-mash of Captain Planet and the Planeteers and Highlander, but isn't as entertaining as either one (and Captain Planet isn't very entertaining to begin with). Billy Zane, who I'm pretty sure has some talent, is wasted. Establishing his "evil" persona in the first minute does his character harm. We would have been better off with a five or ten minute intro to better establish the history of the shadowmen and especially Zane's part in that history. The fight scenes were pathetic. I've seen better choreography in a high school production of Romeo & Juliet. Sure it may look flashy, but this is only because of camera manipulation. Good fight choreography uses as little editing as possible, while Invincible's fights are so jumpy that it is impossible to tell what's really going on--other than the good guys beating up the bad guys.

Poor. Very Poor.

Uh, yeah.

[Conagher-7 · 3 September 2004]

This movie wasn't as good as it could have been. The potential was there, with a decent plot and a few good actors, but it was just not done well.

The idea of a group of different individuals putting their differences aside and coming together to achieve a common goal is not new, but it can be done well. Here it was not. I didn't watch the movie for the story, which was good as it was not real good. The whole "love will overcome all" is a good idea, but Os runs it into the ground to the point that he comes across as one of those fake happy lovely-dovey Mormon missionary types that makes most people nauseous.

Judging from the commercials and the packaging, I expected this to be more of a martial arts movie. Sadly, where most martial arts movies use the story to connect the fight scenes, this movie apparently forgot that it was a martial arts flick and concentrated on a really weak story at the expense of the fighting. One could count the number of fight scenes in this movie on the fingers of one hand and still have plenty of fingers left. The fights that it did have weren't all that great, either. The fighting relied a lot on wires, which is okay for a fairy-tale or a wuxia movie, but it just looked silly here. Also, it wasn't hard to tell that the actors trained just long enough to pull this movie's few fight scenes off. The actions weren't crisp or particularly fast, and they tried to hide all of this via flickering lighting, jerky camera shots and slow-motion. It was just not good from a martial arts perspective.

Unfortunately, most of this 90 minute snoozer is only worth fast-forwarding through, which I did for most of the last thirty minutes, and I'm kicking myself for not fast-forwarding earlier through the totally inane temptation scene. Fast-forwarding through a movie is something I almost never do, but I couldn't take it after an hour of drivel. This movie may have worked as a children's cartoon or some sort of kids live-action movie, but not as a movie aimed at a post-adolescent audience. Mel Gibson I can forgive for being involved in this silly movie, but Jet Li ought to know better. Hopefully he did it as a favor or lost a bet or something.

Bottom line - avoid this one.

Phone The Police, This Film Is A Crime!

[freeireland · 1/10 · 16 July 2002]

If your looking for action,trilling suspence and a great story line then get "The Matrix" and avoid this travesty at all cost. To sit through this film is painful, it could possibly be tyhe worst film I have ever seen. The storyline resembles that of "Tomb Raide", Non-exsitant. The idea of four people being chosen to save the world is not a new one, but this could be overcome with some great acting and action sequences. In this film there are a few fight scences although they make up abou three minutes of a film that seems never-ending.

If you are a Billy Zane fan, please, please do not watch this film, you will end up hating him. Talk about over used, the film consists mainly of him blabbering on about searching inside for the power within. Well I hope you will find the power within and avoid this film at all costs!! TERRIBLE!!!

Cheesiest movie, doesn't even deserve to be a spin off of the Matrix

[phisher33 · 1/10 · 25 November 2001]

This movie is just another awful spin off of the Matrix. It doesn't even deserve to be called a spin off. Billy Zane does a terrible job, I highly recommend not watching this movie. If you wanna hear a lot of one liners that compare of Steven Segal movies check this one. If not, rent The Matrix!!! :)

What a waste of time.

[ZMAN738 · 2/10 · 20 November 2001]

*This Post Contains Spoilers*

While better than Battlefield Earth, no wait...while every bit as bad as *BE* thankfully this was a made for TV film shown on the TBS cable network which should save it from making the top 250 worst films on the database. I was so glad I taped it which saved some time but still it was a major disappointment. Produced by none other that Mel Gibson & Jet Li, which led me to expect something entertaining, I can't imagine that they ever read the lame script before putting their names and money behind this dog.

Speaking of the script, now many times can one stand Billy Zane delivering his never ending cascade of condescending dialogue to the rest of the cast about how they were the saviors of the known universe against all evil and so on and so forth ad nauseam?, most of which takes place in a kind of sacred pool none the less. I guess setting in the pool was supposed to add a mystic flavor to those scenes but I kept asking myself, "what's to point"? The *impact* lines were even worse as they were so obvious that I had to laugh out loud more that once! All those bad guys dressed in all black was another good joke. This would have been a great comedy if only they were not trying to be so bloody serious all the time.

Ah, but this was advertised a Kung-Fu action movie right? You know you are in trouble when a lot of the fighting and even some of the students in training scenes are shot in a blurry slo-motion that does not quite focus on the actor making the moves. The only good Kung-Fu moves were performed by actors behind an opaque screen so one could see that they were not the main characters yet we were to believe that they were. It had wire work too. Yuen Wo Ping (Wing Chun, The Matrix & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) the Master of this technique would hang his head in shame at it's use here it was so poorly executed. Was there any ever any doubt who would win in the end? Let's just hope this was not the pilot for a new series. It's been said that CTHD would start a new interest in, as well as a bunch of American made knock-off's of, Hong Kong style martial arts action films. I can only hope for better than this in the future. Rating: 2/10

Not even love can save this movie

[Lucifel · 1/10 · 16 August 2003]

This has to be one of the most horrible TV Movies I've ever seen.

OK, so, Os, this Shadowman turned Good by the White Warrior, and has to round up a few people to "Save the world", and each of them has some kind of element. Pretty much the whole movie is just Os (played by Billy Zane) talking about love, and how love is going to defeat the Shadowmen... It got really annoying after a while.

Anyone who can sit through this whole movie has nerves of steel.

Better stay away from this one, unless you want to see a movie that was written using Fortune Cookie fortunes.

Stinker

[magic-eight · 1/10 · 19 November 2001]

"Invincible" is an amazingly bad made-for-television movie, filled with poor acting and amateurish direction. You'd think that the likes of Jet Li and Mel Gibson would be enough to propel this turgid mess into something better, but their producing credits are worth nothing more than screen time. The story is something someone picked right out of the trash. If this is a pilot for a tv series, then I wish the producers a lot a luck, 'cause this is a stinker. I can only add that the talent of Tony Ching(Ching Siu-Tung)was wasted.

A Very Very Bad Movie

[bockling · 2/10 · 18 November 2001]

I watched the movie tonight and was highly disapointed. From the previews it looked quite good. But then once I watched it, it went all downhill. They tried to cram in as much special effects as possible...but didn't pull it off. The special effects made it really annoying. It also was very slow moving, and didn't keep you interested at all. I kept watching hoping the ending would be good. But alas my hopes were squashed by a unclimatic ending that didn't even make sense. I was fooled into watching a movie who's over used message was just "love is the most powerful thing in the universe". I mean heck if I wanted to here that I would watch Barney. So please, don't waste your time by watching this movie. I give you fair warning.

Zane plus Gibson plus Li leaves less than nothing

[Doug-6 · 1/10 · 20 April 2003]

Terrible! One point for eye-candy but that in no way justifies a rental. "Invincible" doesn't describe it properly. "Insufferable," perhaps. "Intolerable," definitely. Viewers, avoid for your own sake!

(Hope the checks were fat, guys.)

Your Basic Good Versus Evil Movie With A Slight Twist

[ariesorion · 10/10 · 21 December 2003]

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILER INFORMATION FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS MOVIE BEFORE

First off I give this movie 10 out of 10 stars. I liked this movie the first time I saw it on TV. I watch it every chance I get. I like the graphics and how they are similar to the ones used in "The Matrix".

It tells of four ordinary people who are offered a chance at new lives when their old ones would have led to bad ends. They are each an element of the earth and have to learn to use their powers in becoming protectors of life. They have to defeat the ones who would destroy all life by uniting their strengths and powers together.

I liked watching how they learn to work together and learning about the characters life stories. I also think their supernatural powers are cool since they can do things with them.

Saving the world with martial arts

[biker451 · 7/10 · 18 November 2001]

The Shadowmen, dark angels who can only break from their prison by destroying the Earth. Their leader, Slate, has half of an ancient stone tablet with the power to blow up the Earth and free them. Standing between the Shadowmen and victory are four warriors, Air, Water, Fire and Metal, who have been trained by the keeper of the other half of the tablet. They have six days to stop Slate.

The fact that this movie was produced by Jet Li and Mel Gibson is apparent from the beginning. Non-stop action, incredible special effects and a story right out of the comic books make this a very enjoyable piece of movie mayhem. It was "made for TV" but certainly could have been for theatrical release.

a pathetic "fairytale" about Good and Evil by retarded and underfunded boy-men who watched too much matrix and kung-fu

[kgottlicher · 1/10 · 19 August 2008]

I haven't seen but 10 min of the movie, but i've seen enough. It had potential, you say? Well, let me break it down for you.

Os, formerly one of the "Shadowmen" (who were "exiled to the Earth for committing crimes against cosmic evolution") is accosted by the "White Warrior" and converted by the "Light". Now a soldier of good, he must fight the bad guys ("Shadowmen"), with the aid of the "Elements", who have come into the possession of some "Tablet" and threaten to destroy the Earth.

If you're older than 6 and that sounds like potential... Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you're in a serious need of a life.

The plot's simply inane. I'm all for a little bit of the good ole Good vs. Evil type of action, but not when it seems to have been written by a slightly retarded kid who's never been out of the house and is fed a steady diet of New Age, Matrix and X-Box. And whose only layer is Absolutely Superficial. I mean, layered "adult fairy tales" are one thing - obvious, jejune, insultingly simple stories for the slow on the uptake are another. Add to that idiotic electronic "score" (compliments of Casio defaults), cheap "effects", laughable studio scenery and lighting, wanna-be Matrix/kung-fu fights, amateurish camera-work, and a lot of "profound", solemnly-delivered lines containing a lot of capitalized nouns ("the War is within", "Freedom is inside all life"...) and you get a mess that's so bad it ain't even funny. No, seriously. This is a whole new level.