After a nice Memorial Day weekend, the last week of May is kicked off with another adaptation of The Andromeda Strain.  The Andromeda Strain written by Michael Crichton in 1969, was adapted to film in 1971 by Robert Wise and again today in 2008 by Mikael Salomon directing with Ridley and Tony Scott producing, among others, for a two day mini series on the A&E network.  This two day film however stretches somewhat from the source material.  After a military satellite crashes carrying a lethal virus, we follow a group of scientists on a life or death mission to destroy the virus and learn it’s origins, code named Andromeda.  The Andromeda Strain stars, Benjamin Bratt, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim, Rich Schroder, Viola Davis and Eric McCormack as Jack Nash with Andre Braugher as General George Mancheck.

Although A&E’s Andromeda Strain is put together by filmmakers with excellent experience this mini series simply turns out to be an environmental warning more then the classic science fiction written by Crichton.  Robert Schenkkan who wrote the screenplay takes the original source material and uses it as a platform to re-create Andromeda as message from the future other then being extraterrestrial.  That however doesn’t totally water down the experience.  With well done, for the most part, performances by the main cast and the sub-plot following  Eric McCormack’s character, The Andromeda Strain makes for a nice entertainment piece to relax to after a long day of work but that’s only if your mind can handle lots of talking and medical/scientific jargon.

I personally always enjoy watching made for TV films and mini series, genre related.  Luckily, I don’t have to spend a dime to see them, so it then falls into the category… does it waste my time?  Within the last couple of years I’m pleased to say that I’ve only put just a couple of TV movies into that category, the new Knight Rider included.  The Andromeda Strain is lucky enough to be in the category of something that I enjoyed watching for the most part but its also something that I won’t be thinking about in the long run.  The biggest problem I had with this film is the change of origins of Andromeda.  Originally it’s extraterrestrial but here in this mini series it’s apparently from the future in some sort of self full filling destiny.  Without giving too much away to understand what I mean, you’ll have to watch the mini series.  There are times throughout the mini series that could potentially be boring caused by slow pacing in the story telling.  A lot of times, we find our group of scientists sitting and talking about the situation which is fine and at most points fascinating, however too much is too annoying and eventually boring.  It can also be easily said the worst CGI moment or moments were shown towards the end when the Andromeda virus travelled across the land.  I really can’t explain it in words, but for those who have seen it would probably agree that the visual effects for the entire mini was atrocious.

On the good side of things, Benjamin Bratt who plays Dr. Jeremy Stone turns out to be the most entertaining character.  I found him to be the cliche super scientist with his team of genius companions that sort of reminded me of the old school movie scientists.  Also, Andre Braugher is always enjoyable to watch even though he slips on a couple of his lines forcing things to just not sound right.  That said, ever since I saw Braugher in “Glory” I’ve always liked seeing his movies, not that he’s always made good ones since then.  It’s really nice and refreshing seeing, or rather, hearing Daniel Dae Kim speak English.  Kim of course one of the stars of Lost brings his abilities to the table in the Andromeda Strain adding to the quality of performances. 

As always, when I try to review and look at a film, I take into consideration the surroundings and sets.  I can easily say the filmmakers made good use of their sets.  The underground laboratory turned out to be really cool looking even though it reminded me of the first Resident Evil movie… The usage of technology shown was very interesting as it looked a little more science fiction then the plot.

Other then all of that, I’ve got nothing.

The Andromeda Strain is an alright mini series that I think is worth the watch, if your a science fiction fan or your just into these type of things.  Andromeda is for the most part entertaining but it’s also empty and doesn’t satisfy the classic nature of the original story.  Overall, I rate this a 6 out of 10 and I don’t plan of watching this the next time it’s on.

-Phil