The Andromeda Strain

I feel a little ambivalent about watching the TV remake of The Andromeda Strain now after seeing the original, and it made me realize how much less technology oriented science fiction movies are today. I'm sure the movie would bore some to tears with its lack of sexiness, relationships or a spiffy MovieOS, but the deliberate pacing really built up the suspense, and the minimalism of the sets helped a lot. It seems more of an artistic movie actually - there were several shots that were set up for symmetry or asymmetry, and if I wanted to be really artsy fartsy, I could say that some of them were set up as colour field paintings. There are no big name stars in the movie either - the four main characters are definitely staples of 70s and 80s television. Somehow that made them more real - Kate Reid is believable as a scientist unlike sexier stars. She really had the best role as Dr. Ruth Leavitt.

I wish I had seen the movie before I saw the book - I always found the book difficult to imagine.