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"Made for Cable" crap
Jun. 2nd, 2008 01:12 pmThis weekend A&E was showing their mini-series remake of the classic The Andromeda Strain. The original 1971 film was a well-done adaptation of the Michael Crichton bio-tech thriller. A&E managed to destroy almost everything about the original story that was compelling or realistic.
First, it suffered from the "CSI" problem. The focus is on making the labs look cool and moodily lit. Never mind that not a single industrial or military lab in the world has anything but stark overhead lighting. Second, when dealing with a 99.9% fatal unknown biological organism, you tend to go for the experienced people who have already had children in case they all die horribly. The 1971 original had a team of 50-somethings. The remake decided to make them all hot early 30s, with a history of personal angst and "skeletons in the closet" that would have shown up in a routine FBI background check. Um, WTF?
All that said, I could've lived with the choices in set design and casting had they not ruined the entire story. The original source material did not really support the "Journalist hero fighting the Homeland Security Nazis" sub-plot, nor did Andromeda in the original story get sent back in time from our ecologically impoverished future so that we could stop it using the "save the whales" cure we destroyed in our lack of foresight. Also, Dr Stone would never have had the level of clearance required with his "I'll go to the press" blackmail attitude towards the military commanders throughout this remake, which in reality would've resulted in a bullet in the brain had it not shown up in the original psycholoical evaluations for such an uber level of clearance. It was a unholy combination of Outbreak, Star Trek IV, and The Siege. The individual films were fine, but this combo sucked. This is a real shame, because the original story was an engaging and a realistic portrayal of a real "Wildfire" situation without having to resort to a time-travel hack.
What made the evening more bizarre was I watched it and then an uncut showing of Team America: World Police came on Comedy Central. The cognitive dissonance was painful.
First, it suffered from the "CSI" problem. The focus is on making the labs look cool and moodily lit. Never mind that not a single industrial or military lab in the world has anything but stark overhead lighting. Second, when dealing with a 99.9% fatal unknown biological organism, you tend to go for the experienced people who have already had children in case they all die horribly. The 1971 original had a team of 50-somethings. The remake decided to make them all hot early 30s, with a history of personal angst and "skeletons in the closet" that would have shown up in a routine FBI background check. Um, WTF?
All that said, I could've lived with the choices in set design and casting had they not ruined the entire story. The original source material did not really support the "Journalist hero fighting the Homeland Security Nazis" sub-plot, nor did Andromeda in the original story get sent back in time from our ecologically impoverished future so that we could stop it using the "save the whales" cure we destroyed in our lack of foresight. Also, Dr Stone would never have had the level of clearance required with his "I'll go to the press" blackmail attitude towards the military commanders throughout this remake, which in reality would've resulted in a bullet in the brain had it not shown up in the original psycholoical evaluations for such an uber level of clearance. It was a unholy combination of Outbreak, Star Trek IV, and The Siege. The individual films were fine, but this combo sucked. This is a real shame, because the original story was an engaging and a realistic portrayal of a real "Wildfire" situation without having to resort to a time-travel hack.
What made the evening more bizarre was I watched it and then an uncut showing of Team America: World Police came on Comedy Central. The cognitive dissonance was painful.
