Viewer beware: A little part of the human soul is lost upon watching moments of "The Invisible," a fantasy thriller of the weakest kind.

Only, unlike in the film, the soul won't likely stick around to serve as a life guide — it would be much more entertained ducking into the theater next door to watch Jamie Kennedy's riveting work in "Kickin' It Old Skool."

Consider that a warning.

For those still daring (read: foolish) enough to enter into the latest film oddity spawned by the man who brought us the "Blade" films (and — cringe — TV series), director David S. Goyer, the experience will contain a few points of notice. However, these pale in comparison to the spotty acting, unnatural dialogue and Swiss-cheese plot.

Based on a novel of the same title by Swedish writer Mats Wahl, "The Invisible" centers on the lives of promising high school senior Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin, "War of the Worlds") and rebel with a slight cause Annie Newton (Margarita Levieva, "Vanished"). Though at first glance the pair's lives appear worlds apart — he's an aspiring writer, she's a serial thief — the film ultimately seeks to show just how alike they really are.

This point is served through a chaotic chain of events that mistakenly leads Annie to believe Nick alerted the police to her sticky-fingered ways. The misunderstood thug and her loser cronies set out to teach Nick to keep his mouth shut by beating him into silence. However, things go a bit too far when the bludgeoned boy winds up in an apparently lifeless lump.

Not wanting to add murder to her list of judicial insurrections, Annie and company set out to conceal the body and never speak of the events again. But there is one small problem — in a "Sixth Sense" meets "Ghost" twist — Nick's spirit takes a walk around the living world, screaming and throwing things in order save his dying body. But almost no one becomes privy to his pleas for someone to start a search party. Another convenient detail: His attacker is the Good Samaritan he's looking for. Only she can save him from the tragic fate of forever lying in a shallow grave.

While the film starts out in average fashion, it's all downhill as soon as the walking dead portion kicks in. Nick's attention-getting actions are repetitive and soon become obnoxious; he picks up books and throws them at the wall or smashes glass, but then 30 seconds later, the objects are back in their original places. Apparently the multiple violent series of events are merely figments of the imagination. The cries for attention are anything but subtle when depicted in Captain Obvious-style dialogue: "Mom, I'm dead."

Justin Chatwin tries his best to make the audience empathize with his character, Nick, but with painfully unnatural scripting, his efforts are for not. Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden meets the same fate as Nick's mother Diane, a well-meaning women who just wants what's best for her son, but comes across as a cold, dream-dashing witch. Because of the awkward dialogue choices, the troubled mother-son relationship is better conveyed through a sad face formed from eggs and bacon than the actors' performances as they sit down for a family meal.

Margarita Levieva is able to convey Annie's emotions in a fairly convincing manner, but relies heavily on wardrobe to give her an extra dark edge. The film attempts some strained hint of light-dark imagery by perpetually clothing the tortured soul in black hoodies and stocking caps (even worn inside the school building — a definite no-no in most educational facilities) when she's out living on the bitchy side and lighter shades when her inner strength peaks out. Truly deep.

The true absurdity of the storyline also leaves something to be desired. Somehow, characters are able to operate vehicles with life-threatening injuries, all the while making it appear as if they've incurred nothing more than a paper-cut. The police force is also straight out of the scenes of "Reno! 911." They can't apprehend criminals or fire on target to save their lives.

While "The Invisible" is chock full of far-fetched occurrences, it's missing significant chunks of information in the film. Random elements are brought to light and then never mentioned again, leaving the audience with a lot of unanswered questions: How did Annie's mom die? Why is her father now a deadbeat? Why is her link to the lead detective a necessary story element?

Plagued by such gross pitfalls, in the end, the message of the film is overlooked. The true "invisible" here is a coherent plot, not the spirit of Nick or the renegade Annie as originally intended.

Grade: 0.5 out of 5