The Andromeda Strain
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Movie Reviews of The Andromeda Strain
Movie Review: Dated, but still a good movie...
Summary: 5 Stars
Good suspenseful scifi drama, even if it is a tad dated by today's standards. Excellent story, good visual effects, still keeps my attention after all these years. -kd5-Movie Review: The Andromeda Strain
Summary: 5 Stars
Great remake of a classic sci-fi movie. Different from the orginal but still a excellant movie and cast.Movie Review: Still a strong movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Still a heart pounding tensely played out what-if sci-fi drama. Have always enjoyed it, always will!Movie Review: Space aliens don't have to be big to be deadly!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
+++++
This science fiction movie is based on the 1969 book of the same title by Michael Crichton.
Before the introductory credits start rolling, the viewer is given the following acknowledgement to read:
"This film concerns the four-day history of a major American crisis.
We received the generous help of many people attached to Project Scoop at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Wildlife Laboratory in Flatrock, Nevada. They encouraged us to tell the story accurately and in detail.
The documents presented here are soon to be made public. They do not in any way jeopardize the national security."
This acknowledgement sounds like this movie is dealing with a real event that occurred. However, in reality, it did not occur but it could! It also adds realism to the movie.
Project Scoop refers to the imaginary Scoop Satellite Program that was an attempt to collect space pathogens and microbes for use in biological warfare. The "American crises" indicated above refers to the Scoop satellite crashing in a small town (population: 68) and infecting it with an "unknown biological agent" that causes death.
The movie covers, as indicated above, the four-day history of this crisis and the viewer is taken through each day.
On day one the Scoop satellite is discovered to have crashed and the military investigates only to find all the people of a small town dead. A team of scientists with one medical doctor is formed. The members of the final team are:
(1) Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill)
(2) Dr. Charles Dutton (David Wayne)
(3) Dr. Mark Hall (James Olsen)
(4) Dr. Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid)
On day two, two of this team investigate the doomed city themselves only to find a six-month old baby and an old alcoholic derelict still alive. They also find the unknown biologic agent that caused the deaths.
On day three we are shown the "Wildlife Laboratory" indicated above where the scientific team is to analyze the unknown biological agent as well as the two survivors and hopefully discover how to neutralize the agent. This lab is five stories or levels and is underground. (This is shown by the use of an elaborate set.) The first four levels are for decontamination of the scientists and the fifth level is where they actually do their analytical work.
Day four is the most exciting where the actual analysis takes place and the two survivors are examined. What do the infant and the derelict have in common that made them survive? Can the scientists find the answer before the unknown agent contaminates the entire planet? Be ready for other surprises that occur during this day. By the way, the unknown agent is termed "The Andromeda Strain." Andromeda (also called M31 and NGC 224) is the nearest, large galaxy to our Galaxy. (It is about 2.5 million light years from Earth.) A strain is a line of individuals of a certain species.
Scientific background support for this movie was from the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech") and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that's associated with NASA. Scientific equipment was provided by nine companies including RCA, Dupont, and Honeywell.
The only thing I found outdated in the movie was the use of a Teletype machine. Today, we would use E-mail.
All the acting is good but I have to give special kudos to Arthur Hill as the efficient Jeremy Stone and James Olson as the concerned medical doctor, Dr. Mark Hall.
The main background music is good. As well, there are scenes where the screen is divided thus making for interesting viewing.
The DVD itself released in April 2003 is perfect in picture and sound quality. It has two extras, one of which I found interesting.
The science in this movie is authentic. Those that are not scientifically literate especially in chemistry and biology may have difficulty in following the last and most exciting part (day four). Thus, I would recommend turning the closed-captioning on and when an unfamiliar word crops up, stop the movie and look it up. Doing so, will increase your comprehension and enjoyment of the movie.
Finally, the only problem I had with this movie is that day three seems to go on for way too long and becomes somewhat boring. This part could have been condensed to make the movie shorter.
In conclusion, this movie is a thriller and is scientifically precise. These two things combine to make for fascinating viewing!!
**** 1/2
(1971; 2 hr, 10 min; widescreen; closed-captioned)
+++++
Movie Review: A thrilling albeit rather technical science fiction classic
Summary: 4 Stars
The Andromeda Strain is the faithful 1971 adaptation of Michael Crichton's bestselling novel, and while the movie is quite good at what it does, its overemphasis on science fact and hard science fiction can make it seem rather tedious at times. The story gets off to a rousing start, as two soldiers sent to recover a downed satellite find a small, remote town littered with dead bodies and quickly increase the body count by two. A military-ordered flyby of the area reveals no signs of life at all, but a biohazard team that arrives in the dead town finds the satellite and two miraculous survivors - an old man and a strong-lunged baby; at this point Project Wildfire is quickly set in motion. Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill), Dr. Charles Dutton (David Wayne), Dr. Mark Hall (James Olson), and Dr. Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) are quickly gathered up by the military and sent to the secret underground lab designed to deal with just such an emergency. It seems that the U.S. had been looking for specimens in space in the guise of Project Scoop, and now it had definitely found something - something which could kill every human being on the planet in short order.It is at this point that the plot starts to seem a little weird to me. None of the four scientists knows a thing about the super-secret Project Scoop, and two of them even balk at the demands for their assistance. Dr. Leavitt is a sometimes cantankerous older lady with a bit of an attitude problem, and Dr. Hall's selection makes little sense (I'm sure he was not the only doctor in the nation who had no family). While Stone and Dutton already know each other, everyone else is a stranger to one another, and at least two of them hail from the private sector, which is the last place I would expect the military to go looking in a crisis of this magnitude and nature. Once they all get together, Stone explains the situation and lays out a plan for identifying, studying, and hopefully stopping whatever the satellite brought back to earth with it. Before the four scientists can begin studying the mystery, they have to go through total decontamination. This process takes a mind-boggling sixteen hours, with six of those hours dedicated to sleep. Once they finally make it down to the bottom level, they go through scientific test after scientific test, pausing only occasionally to gripe at one another.
Experiments show the unknown agent to be unique and ruthless in its deleterious effects; within seconds, the blood of anyone exposed to it is turned to powder. The scientists make steady progress, despite their bewilderment at the properties of what is obviously something not of this earth. Miscommunication with Washington, D.C. makes them believe they have more time than they actually do in order to understand and neutralize this unworldly threat to human life itself, setting the stage for an exciting conclusion tainted somewhat by a rather convenient set of circumstances and events. The movie trailer promised that audiences would be standing on their feet for the final ten minutes of the movie; this was a gross exaggeration.
My problem is with the whole lab setup. A threat of this biological nature would demand quick action indeed, yet the whole world has to depend on four scientists who have never really worked together being contacted and shuttled off to a secret location. Add the time it takes to get them there to the sixteen hours of decontamination processing they must go through before beginning their crucial jobs, and you get a lengthy amount of time during which a truly virulent germ or disease could have spread far and wide.
The majority of this movie deals with the scientific tests the scientists run on their specimens. This is quite interesting in its way, but I'm sure some viewers will find themselves bored to tears amidst a sea of scientific mumbo-jumbo. The darkly energetic atmosphere built up around the opening scenes dies quickly in the sterile arena of the secret lab and never really returns. Still, I would be prepared to give The Andromeda Strain five stars were it not for the ending, as the filmmakers definitely, to my mind, took the easy way out when it came to concluding what was, up to then, a suspenseful thriller presented in as serious and scientifically valid a way as possible.