Well Deserved Praise

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Instead of rehashing how awful this movie was, let's name the cliché or plot hole that stood out the most for us.For me, it had to have been when Dr. Barton was in the containment room, panicking because she had been exposed to the virus, and she realizes that her hyperventilation has probably made her flushed with CO2 so she has not been infected. And just then, the good Dr. Noyce motherly chirps in with "You have to CALM DOWN!"Why? Was Dr Noyce trying to kill her or something? And for that matter...whatever happened to Dr. Barton? Like so many other characters...she just fell out of the plot after that.

In 2008, The Scott brothers, along with the master of the mini-series, Mikael Salomon, decided to remake the 1969 debut novel and 1971 film, The Andromeda Strain, written by famed Jurassic Park author, Michael Crichton. The film was in serious need of an upgrade, and while the new technology really enhanced the film, making it all the more believable, the updates to the story along with the new characters that were introduced, really did the original story a disservice. The basic story was not changed, just modernized, and for that we are very thankful. The story was always a terrific tale of Science Fiction and an early message about the damage we are doing to our planet. I like how the story was updated and I loved the technological advancements. What I didn't like was how much they changed the cast. They wanted to make them more diverse and I don't have a problem with that, but this is not a story that focuses on individuals, it's more about the virus, the technology, and the human impact on our planet. In that sense, I felt it hurt the series, but the technology enhanced it, evening things out. The original novel and movie were 4 stars, and so is the remake. It's different, but there wasn't much harm done, the way you often see in remakes. I think Michale Crichton would have approved.

Adapting literature classics can't be easy, more so when they are decades older, more so when they have been adapted for cinema before. But this "Andromeda Strain" does a good job at telling an attractive, efficient story for modern-day viewers. It isn't perfect, but it fulfills quite a lot of different needs we might have as viewers: a fast-paced story, appealing characters, a mystery, and a story that, while demanding suspension of disbelief for sure, doesn't treat the viewers as stupid.It starts when an apparent satellite falls in the middle of a plain in Utah and two kids find it and bring it into town. Soon enough everyone has been killed. A top-notch scientist group is summoned by general Mancheck, in charge of the biohazard defense operations, and they find there are two survivors, a baby and a 60-year-old alcoholic. After exploring the now dead town, they will find out they are fighting with something completely new and threatening, which they will call "Andromeda".I thought they did a good job at keeping the suspense and developing and ending the story in a smart and fulfilling way. It has some loose ends for sure, it gets a bit confusing or tries to comprise too much information in small bits sometimes; and it also has some subplots or secondary characters that could have easily been done without (I didn't find that the character of Jack Nash and his story as intrepid journalist added much), but all in all this is good and quality entertainment. My score is 8/10.

In spite of some minor flaws and differences from the original 1971 film, the first half of "The Andromeda Strain" was pretty decent. It wasn't anything too special, but it came off as a fairly interesting and well-executed bio-tech thriller to me.Unfortunately, all that fell apart during the second half. The most absurd plot holes or just plain absurdities followed one another at an increasing pace, which totally ruined the atmosphere built up during the first half. What started out as a fairly interesting film ended in a disaster.Adding to this, the annoying environmentalist, anti-corporate and anti-"military-industrial complex" message that's added to the story is very naive (almost childish) and doesn't mix well with the rest of the plot. It reminds me of "On Deadly Ground", where Steven Seagal takes a perfectly valid environmentalist message and turns it into an atrocious action film. Considering I actually agree with the idea that we must be aware of greedy corporations, corrupt politicians and the fragility of our environment, it really bothers me when Hollywood does such a bad job conveying that message.