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calzephyrUsually even the worst remake improves upon the original in some way, however small. The 2008 TV remake of The Andromeda Strain lacks any sort of improvement, although Benjamin Bratt was a bonus. It's like a four hour, boring X-files/CSI crossover. We just hated it as it lacked any of the intelligence, brilliance or suspense of the original.
First of all, the movie fails in the science department right from the get go. When the satellite touches down, a teenage couple tosses it into the back of their pick up truck. Let's just forget that it would be red hot :-D
Anything scientific takes a back seat to a shadow government, conspiracy theory nuts, wormholes, a TV journalist and suspicions about North Korea. There's even something of a "warehouse ending" where a sample of Andromeda ends up. Sub-sub-plots abound too, such as Dr. Stone's strained marriage and estranged son. They also made environmentalists look like terrorists. Some of them aren't crazy!
Oh yeah, there's the part near the end where a dismembered thumb is thrown up a few stories and Dr. Stone manages to catch it. Geez Louise!
Lastly, there was some crummy CGI. Real flames are always better than CGI ones, and there were some poorly rendered effects, such as when all the pilot's plastic parts dissolve. I understand that it can be hard to convey some things visually, but showing Andromeda spreading by tinting the landscape red is not how to do it. Similarly, when the virus is defeated, the red areas recede.
First of all, the movie fails in the science department right from the get go. When the satellite touches down, a teenage couple tosses it into the back of their pick up truck. Let's just forget that it would be red hot :-D
Anything scientific takes a back seat to a shadow government, conspiracy theory nuts, wormholes, a TV journalist and suspicions about North Korea. There's even something of a "warehouse ending" where a sample of Andromeda ends up. Sub-sub-plots abound too, such as Dr. Stone's strained marriage and estranged son. They also made environmentalists look like terrorists. Some of them aren't crazy!
Oh yeah, there's the part near the end where a dismembered thumb is thrown up a few stories and Dr. Stone manages to catch it. Geez Louise!
Lastly, there was some crummy CGI. Real flames are always better than CGI ones, and there were some poorly rendered effects, such as when all the pilot's plastic parts dissolve. I understand that it can be hard to convey some things visually, but showing Andromeda spreading by tinting the landscape red is not how to do it. Similarly, when the virus is defeated, the red areas recede.
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It was OK
Date: 2009-08-25 09:40 am (UTC)Anyway, the one thing that annoys me most about the remake is that they added in a lot of things that were simply not in the novel and shifted away the focus of the movie from science to stupid government conspiracies, military operations and subplots that went nowhere.
More to the point, they put in other things not discussed in the original book, like the whole thing about wormholes (wtf?) and the space station at the end. (More wtf?)
I think it's kind of sad they gave it the Hollywood treatment instead of staying true to the book. :/