The Andromeda Strain

Introduction

The world of the virus is a microscopic and potentially deadly one. It always amazes me how we have been able to not only advance far enough scientifically to detect these little buggers, and take them for granted in this modern age, but also able to fight and neutralise them. Sadly there are still more than enough of the bleeders that we have so far been proven inadequate at stopping their tracks (HIV, Ebola and even the common cold are some of the more infamous examples). We have enough trouble with earth-borne hazards, but what if one came from space?

This is the concept explored in Michael Crichton's early novel The Andromeda Strain, made into a superb feature film in 1971. Now, presumably with some spare time after reediting Blade Runner, Ridley Scott and his brother Tony have decided to remake the film into a two part mini series that was recently seen on Sky.


A top secret satellite crashes unexpectedly to earth and an Army humvee is despatched to track and retrieve it. Tracing it to a small town in the middle of nowhere, the two man crew is astounded to find that bar one known survivor, everyone in town appears to be dead. Sadly, as they make this shocking discovery the crew keel over themselves. Aerial reconnaissance clearly shows the devastation to General George Mancheck (Andre Braugher), a man with secrets to keep, and under orders from the US President (Ted Whittel) initiates project Wildfire.

Wildfire is a team of five specialists from different fields, who have a top secret research laboratory at their disposal to try to not only contain but defeat the new alien virus code named the Andromeda Strain. Led by Wildfire laboratory designer Dr Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt), the team also consists of Dr Angela Noyce (Christa Miller), Dr Tsi Chou (Daniel Dae Kim), Dr Charlene Barton (Viola David) and military man Major Bill Keane MD (Ricky Schroder).

Meanwhile, journalist Jack Nash (Eric McCormack) gets a lead on the outbreak and a top secret project called Project Scoop…

Visual

For a TV mini series, it looks quite impressive as an update of the original film. I was surprised during the Making of featurette by just how many effects shots were in there. Should have realised really, especially with the wildlife. Some of it, like the shots of the jet fighter, were a little obvious but don't spoil it at all (for me anyway). Again, remembering my recent review of The Last Enemy, computer technology and GUI's are far ahead of what is really technically possible but most are well realised and integrated well. Oddly though, the use of touch screens seems to be absolute and doesn't really work with the mechanical arm in the Wildfire lab.

Audio

Nice 5.1 Surround track but once more no subtitles.

Extras

Making Of - fairly uninteresting, bar not realising just how crucial Benjamin Bratt was to people agreeing to sign up for this series. I never realised just how big a name this actor was, only thing I can remember seeing him is was Law & Order. There's also some interesting discussion of the FX shots, some I just hadn't noticed at the time (or maybe had but they were good enough not to jar me from my immersion in the story)

Commentary - one on each episode, I'm not really going to spend time listening to them to be honest as I'm not a huge fan of these yak tracks in general.

Overall

The Andromeda Strain is a great film, in this time of remakes it's no big surprise that this was due another one. The orginal film stuck firmly to the scientific formula that is the Crichton standard for his books of this ilk, and whilst it looked dated and the pace was slow, it was full of tension for the problem at hand. Sadly, and despite Ridley Scott's hand in this, modern remakes need to mess around and add subplots that studio's mistakenly believe viewers can identify with and The Andromeda Strain 2008 is no exception.

First and foremost, we have a Government/military conspiracy that hinders our scientific heroes whilst supposedly helping them. We have extraneous characters that just have no place in this series but needed supposedly to pad this out for the full three hours. The prime example of this is ex-junkie journalist Jack Nash. While there's nothing wrong with Eric McCormack's actual performance, his plotline is not required and goes nowhere fast. Our scientists all have personal baggage too, whether Stone's alcoholic wife and emo son, Noyce's failed romance with Stone or Chou's dubious terrorist past. They're all pointless, bar the subtle crowing in of the usual romantic subplot that sees fruition as the world is supposedly about to end.


We also have a ridiculous plotline that tracks the origin of the Andromeda Strain and whilst the original didn't really explore the origins bar the fact that it was clearly extra terrestrial, here it's not only linked environmentally to deep mining of ocean vents but also time travel(!) as a potential attack from a disgruntled future.

Thing is, when this remake treads the same ground as the original film it makes a decent fist of updating it - albeit with some shortcuts in explanation and plot. One thing that wasn't really explored in the original film was the spread of the deadly virus through the local wildlife and how a virus like this can develop and mutate. The former was well realised, but the latter got a bit silly in the end. Really Ridley Scott should have known better, cutting out some of the stupid subplots and padding out his running time with more detail from the book or original film, which although dated is still the best overall adaptation of the source material.

Not bad, but probably better if you have no original point of reference for comparison.