The Credulity Strain
Posted on | June 2, 2008 at 6:18 am | 2 Comments
I watched the A&E mini-series remake of The Andromeda Strain the other night. I remember liking the original movie a lot when I was a kid. Though I probably only saw it once or twice, it left an impression on me, as it was the first out-of-control virus epidemic movie I’d ever seen. It really scared me. I think I read the book too.
I was looking forward to the mini-series even though it was garnering mostly negative reviews. It did have its problems. One reviewer I read commented that Benjamin Bratt looked like he wasn’t even trying to act, and I have to agree with that. No matter how dire the situation, his character was always smiling and talking in the same flat tone. He was sort of having a romance with Christa Miller’s character, but the two had no chemistry and it just came off as creepy. Ricky Schroeder was the least convincing hardcore military gay doctor ever portrayed, and I just kept flashing back to his 24 character. Daniel Dae Kim was totally wasted as another doctor. Andre Braugher was okay, but his military general character kept changing in a not very convincing way.
But the big problem was the plot. They took what was a fairly simple concept and added wormholes and time travel and sulfur-eating undersea bacteria and all sorts of other complex concepts to stretch it out to four hours. I’m pretty sure none of that was in the original book or movie. There was a subplot involving Eric McCormack as a drug-addicted investigative reporter that pretty much went nowhere. His character never really met up with anyone important and he spent most of the movie on the run from some government conspirators. I think it was all just an excuse to show him shirtless.
And there were plot holes galore. The fact that the virus could mutate quickly meant that they could have it do anything they wanted at any time, as the script called for. But it just made the narrative seem jumbled. And there were all sorts of plot holes. One in particular that really bothered me was that at one point the general cut off all external contact to the scientists investigating the virus in their super secret huge underground lab, because he didn’t want them leaking any info out. The problem with that is that they couldn’t even call out to the people in charge to report their status, and had to jury-rig something so they could talk to the general and blackmail him into restoring their communication privileges. It just made no sense. I guess no one really cared if they found a cure or all wound up dead. The whole government conspiracy angle seemed unnecessary (and, again, tacked-on) and didn’t add anything to the story. And the whole bit with the two survivors from the town, the baby and the old man, was just kind of dropped before the last act. I remember it being more important in the movie/book.
But the biggest problem of all is that they didn’t even include the best scene from the original movie. I still vividly remember that part where a laser beam drilled a hole in the doctor’s hand as he was trying to get to where he could switch off the self destruct sequence. The closest thing we got to that in the mini-series was falling debris and hot steam in the central core shaft. What a waste! Where are my lasers???
So, thumbs down from me, though I can’t say I wasn’t entertained at times. In general, there was less suspense than in the original, probably because it was stretched out too long. (And yet… the book didn’t seem too long, from what I remember.) I probably would’ve graded it higher if there were lasers. Give me lasers!
Latre.
Comments
2 Responses to “The Credulity Strain”
June 2nd, 2008 @ 7:23 am
> Where are my lasers???
It’s been done in a number of other shows and films since; they probably considered it over-used. Or maybe lasers smack of 20th-century technology to them, as they do to me. I want to see mass drivers, phased-array microwave weapons and charged particle beams in this post-911 world…
June 3rd, 2008 @ 2:01 am
The book indeed was not that long, and the original movie was pretty faithful to it. And you are remembering right: No Worm Holes, no time travel, no sulfur in the oceans — just a discussion about the pH level of the water and its effects on the strain. The Old Man and the Baby were both hugely important to the originals — but for only one major reason so they might be able to be dropped by the last act. And government conspiracies? Well, perhaps true if it were The Modern Crichton, but back then it was pretty simple: bioweapons research, and the need to create a “hot” room in case Neil, Buzz and Mike actually did bring home some nasty critter on their shoes. The story was much more a story of science, and as such any talk of conspiracy would have convoluted his point. (According to IMDB, Crichton wrote it while still in Med School, he became fascinated by the concept of crystalline life forms.)
(I was a huge fan of the book, it was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, and I really liked the original movie. Based on your review, I think I’ll avoid the mini-series. Thanks again!)