Review: The Andromeda Strain (2008)

[yesthattom]

Meh. Pretty exciting but not the greatest. The science had enough errors to make it “ok for made-for-TV, but wouldn’t have cut it in the theaters”. Then again, it was made-for-TV. It was shown in two 2-hour episodes (4 hours total).

Minor spoiler rant: ITS BEEN DAYS AND YOU’RE JUST NOW THINKING OF TESTING ITS REACTION TO ACID AND BASE? NOTHING YOU TESTED ALREADY WAS PARTICULARLY EXTREME PH???

A decent way to end the weekend (watching all 4 hours on Tivo). Exciting, but not so scary it would keep me up all night trying to get some rest before the long work week.

Comments

[cliph.livejournal.com]

Awww man, they remade this? Why did they do that? That's one of my favorite films. I really wish they'd stop doing this.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Yeah I much preferred the original for drama. This one had better sfx--that's about it.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Seen back to back, they're interesting commentaries on the times in which they were made. The new one has a much more diverse cast, no one gropes the female medical professional, etc. On the other hand, the old one had actors who looked like humans.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

*nod* Agreed. I preferred Dr. Leavitt's performance of an epileptic seizure, however. I don't personally know any epileptics who can talk during a grand mal seizure. That really broke my suspension of disbelief.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

It was clear at several stages that there was *not* a science advisor associated with this show.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

*grin* no argument there...

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

They needed to somehow replicate what was the big epilepsy + red blinken lights failure in the original while also having a computer do all the work? I don't know. I'm just confused about how Ridley Scott could be involved in all this.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Oh, and let's not forget...

THE GAY GUY GETS KILLED... :grr:

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

The gay guy and the Asian guy (speaking of which...I guess Daniel Dae Kim is the only Asian man in Hollywood now? I mean, he's an attractive guy and all, but still.).

Although, it's hard to say if it's really the gay guy getting killed or the heroic military guy getting killed, in terms of what the writers were thinking.

[cinema-babe.livejournal.com]

The only good thing about this mini-series was that it made me want to read the book. I didn't even finish it because I found it so "meh" (Which is a rarity for me, I'll sit through damn near anything.)

I'm one of the more scientifically clueless people I know and I spotted some weird stuff right off the bat. (For example, if I'm doing a scan of an area where people have been dead for 24 hours, why are they still radiating so much body heat? IIRC, body temp falls 1 degree per house post mortem, so I'm thinking they would be mostly stone cold.)

After I tuned away I looked this up on IMDB and someone made this post about some of the holes in this movie (mostly, but not all, scientific)

[wayward-va.livejournal.com]

Watched it. I knew I'd be disappointed, compared to the original, when the ultra-top-secret military guys showed up at the door and said "There's been a Wildfire incident."

It would have been better for the sense of drama, and a nice nod to the original, to replicate the line as performed originally. "Dr. Stone? There's been a fire."

[lediva.livejournal.com]

Minor spoiler rant: ITS BEEN DAYS AND YOU’RE JUST NOW THINKING OF TESTING ITS REACTION TO ACID AND BASE? NOTHING YOU TESTED ALREADY WAS PARTICULARLY EXTREME PH???

I recall this being part of the original movie as well. (possibly the book also, but it's been much longer since I've seen that)

Also, I thought it was interesting to expand on what the virus could do... but the blatant setting up for a sequel? Bleah. If I've already given you four hours of my life, the least you can do is give me a complete story.

[skyethebard.livejournal.com]

"ITS BEEN DAYS AND YOU’RE JUST NOW THINKING OF TESTING ITS REACTION TO ACID AND BASE? NOTHING YOU TESTED ALREADY WAS PARTICULARLY EXTREME PH???"

Yeah. I yelled, "Are you f-ing serious?!?!" at the screen when I watched it on Sunday. My son, passing through, laughed at me for talking to the tv. There were several bs science moments in that movie (and I'm no scientist) but I was willing to pretend. When this nonsense popped up, I really wanted to bail on the whole thing but by then I had watched how many hours and zoomed through how many commercials? *lol*

I did like the "If you don't ask, I won't tell" line.