The Andromeda Strain (2008)

Not a good remake. Plenty of plot points borrowed from the book, but lots of fluffy stuff added that doesn't make any sense and leaves one with an itch. Lots of dumbness, particularly later in the flick. People croak who shouldn't have and some don't croak who reasonably should have. The NSA is involved somehow in a creepy, back-channel way that is never explained and which makes no sense in the first place. Shadowy players go around whacking people without covering their tracks at all. Dumb, dumb, dumb.Lots of "surprises" are telegraphed far in advance of their reveal. Lots of "mysteries" are obvious long before they are solved. The rate of spread of the disease is far in excess of physical possibility. The solution to the disease could not possibly be spread quickly enough to deal with it, but the filmmakers figured that viewers' minds were already shut off by that point anyway.It's hard to believe that a mess like this could have been hacked out by the Scotts, but then, so was _Prometheus._ Okay, I believe it now.

Though I'd never seen the original or read the book I'd always been curious about this sci-fi classic.I found this version to be well-acted and full of suspense, but unclear and repetitious at times. (How many buzzard scenes did we really need to see?) And I didn't get at all why Mancheck and his crony were killed in the end, and by whom. (The president didn't seem swift enough to mastermind something like that.) And how was the Viola Davis character threatened? Most importantly, how and why was the lethal strain transmitted to earth in the first place? I liked the film for a few truly interesting scenes but more care should have been taken to clarify questions like these.Not at all bad but this could have been better.

I would have given this entertaining movie 8 stars instead of 10, but I'm giving it 10 stars to "balance out" the reviewers who are giving it 1 star just because the scientists include minorities and a gay man. By the way, out of 3 hours, there is 7 seconds where we learn that one scientist is gay and then it is never mentioned again. And apparently some reviewers are shocked, SHOCKED that a Latino or an Asian-American or an African-American or a gay person could be a scientist. Of course, that says nothing about minorities, but says volumes about the intelligence of the bigoted reviewers. That said, the movie, while very entertaining, is about an hour too long. They could have left out the "CNN-type" reporter (played by a straight actor who used to play a gay character on a sitcom-----Oh No!!! Another "gay" connection! Horrors!). Almost all of his scenes were unnecessary and cutting those scenes would have made the movie better and only 2 hours.

After reading many reviews (about 100 of them) on this site, it seems like we have reached a consensus on this junky remake:1. Zero suspense 2. Rainbow cast 3. Ridiculous sub-plots 4. Nonsensical science 5. Shamefull ripoffI would agree with everything above. I too saw the original movie many years ago. It was masterfull in drawing you in to the confines of the plot. The suspense, the isolation, the last best hope of mankind to solve the riddle. Never once did my mind wander as to who theses "actors" were. They were so believable as Top scientists, you left the movie thinking they were real Doctors. The story did not require stupid lame subplots to fuel the movie, the main storyline was more than enough. The end result was a suspenseful, edge of your seat, clock ticking away type movie that left you exhausted at the conclusion, allowing yourself to finally swallow that lump in your throat that has been there the last hour. Bravo!Having said that, lets now examine the remake:This movie (if you can call it that) suffers from what most re-makes do. The times are changing. Gone are the thoughtfull, well made, movies that inspire viewers to use their imagination to think things out. Most movies today are about money, not about accomplishment. This crap is just another excuse to dip into that well of good movies to see if they can squeeze a few more dollars out of it. Instead of making a straight science-fiction movie, the producers no doubt formed a focus group of drunk and stoned college students to see what they want in a movie. Of course, Hollywood has to make sure it offends no one except white people, and of course make every opportunity to bash America. This movie succeeded very well on both counts. The result, more PC/anti-American garbage that plays well in foreign countries. Skip this junk unless you are the type that think SCI-FI original movies are good.