Andromeda Strain

Strain indeed. I had high hopes for a remake of this film.  Unfortunately the writer and directer butchered what used to be a fairly suspenseful technology thriller into a lame ass, poorly written, cliche filled  two night  joke. Of course they had to add a bunch of ham fisted references to Iraq, Homeland security, the current administration, etc. It seems that is the cool insider thing to do now, but this was worse than the episode of Star Trek called “The Way to Eden“.

At the end of the first night I essentially told Joani what the plot, including the upcoming weak twists on the original story would be. I hit nearly every mark. There was contradictory dialog Joani picked up on that I missed because by that time I had turned off my brain. In one breath a “scientist” says the virus can’t change its basic structure, in the next they show concern that the adapting, intelligent virus might surprise them with something new from its bag of tricks.

If you have seen the original you would remember the central shaft with the lasers that zap critters that escape into it. Well this time round there is a bunch of unexplainable falling junk and a deadly pool of I guess radioactive blue water at the bottom.  Seemed to me like more bad Star Trek / Galaxy Quest “mashers” with the count down to 2 seconds at the end.

This is my first actual review, two out of seven.