Ah, the dystopia that the people of the 70s feared… Looking back, it’s hard to tell what was the greater threat to mankind back then. Was it overpopulation, and the resulting Soylent Green-byproducts? Zombies who love mall sales? Killer bees? Towering infernos? An ape rebellion? Those were the days…
Well, thanks again to the joy that is Netflix video-on-demand, I had an opportunity to once again view a classic of the “holy crap, we’re all gonna die horribly!” genre, that Michael Crichton ode to space viruses, The Andromeda Strain.
The plot is straight forward. A space probe has landed in a small town and, in it lies the Blob! No, wait, wrong flick. In it lies a microscopic space virus that makes people die horribly and turns thier blood into reddish pop rocks. Seriously.
Thankfully, the government has spent millions of dollars preparing for such an eventuality and has a five-level Biohazard Batcave called Wildfire (since the government ALWAYS plans for any and all contingencies, don’t ya know). This being the 70s, the super-secret underground lab is made of solid chrome – Oh, and some brushed steel and aluminum, to add some variety to the color palette.
Anyway, the super-scientists are summoned (though, inaccurately, none have facial hair or suspenders), they spend a lot of time talking about the base, incuding the self-destruct mechanism it has in case some nasty bugs get out (a nuke, of course – it’s the only way to be sure). Then they spend some time talking about what happened and trying to figure out why only two people survived. Then they spend a lot of time talking about how to stop the virus from spreading.
Then they talk some more.
Have you notice that this movie is a little “talky?” I guess it’s exciting to attend a CDC conference but it really makes for a boring movie.
Not to say there’s not things to recommend. David Wayne plays one of the doctors, and I loved him as the Mad Hatter on Batman. The sets are gorgeous. The last twenty minutes are actually interesting, in a “beat-the-clock-or-we’re-all-gonna-die” way. Finally, the movie’s semi-documentary style is interesting to watch. But, unless you’re a bio-science nerd or hard SF fan, I’d skip it.
Here’s a fan remix that is cooler than the movie…
[youtube]UysZSn2ggTU[/youtube]