Andromeda Strain

The cast is full of great underrated actors giving some of their best performances, including Canadian Kate Reid, Walter Hill, and David Wayne. If you are a fan of movies that make a serious effort to portray the possiblity of a doomsday virus in a reality-based "procedural" way, Robert Wise's movie compares favorably to anything else out there, including OUTBREAK or THE STAND, and it's far better than most films of this "genre". THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was critically well-received for its taut suspense and sharp, modern editing style and excellent performances. Often edited for television, I confidently recommend the theatrical version of this tech-thriller classic.


Flawed plot, outdated effects, and utterly boring   April 26, 2004
Gustaf Stechmann (Hamburg, Germany)
9 out of 28 found this review helpful

I bought this DVD based on Amazon recommendations and was very disappointed.

What struck me first is this obvious plothole:

The story revolves about an alien virus brought to Earth. This virus mutates after some days. So far so good. BUT! As anyone who has paid attention in science class should know, mutation means that *one* individual organism changes into a new form. Thus, this one individuum and its offspring have properties that differ from those of their ancestor.

However, when one organism mutates, this does *not* mean that other representatives of the same species automatically mutate too! In other words, while one virus in a petri dish may change into a different form, those viruses which aren't descended from this mutated dude will *not* change! They'll just continue to exist the way they were.

But not in this movie! When all of a sudden one single virus mutates, BANG all the other viruses which are stored in different (sealed) lab rooms, and even miles away in the desert, within seconds are miraculously converted into this new form.

Something like this would be tolerable in an avarage B-movie, but in a hardcore sci-fi flick like this one which revolves all around science in the first place, such a fundamental and obvious error should not have been overlooked.

What's worse is that there is not enough plot here to fill even a third of the movie. To work around this problem, the director takes us on a series of lengthy tours around the monumental set (a futuristic underground laboratory) which is, as producer Robert Wise states in an interview, the "true star" of the film. But while clearly inspired by "2001: A Space Oddyssey", the production design featured here is by far not as original, innovative or interesting as that of Kubrik's classic film.

Likewise, the mock-up computer effects are laughable, and much better effects have been seen in movies that were made years earlier.

On the plus side, Crichton's concept of an alien virus is interesting. But that alone is by far not enough to rectify a full-length feature film.


Excellent movie marred by a horrible transfer or print   June 10, 1999
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Intelligent, taught, suspense thriller that I saw in the theatre when it was first released. All of the technical goo in the picture is somewhat dated by today's standards, but if you keep the age of the film in mind while watching, you'll be more forgiving. The fact that most of the equipment used in the production was real also adds to the viewing experience.

I do have a major complaint with this DVD though. This transfer has to be the worst I've ever seen, Laserdisc or DVD (though the film never made it to Laser). Maybe it's a good transfer of the worst print I've ever seen. Either way, the viewing pleasure is diminished because of it. I understood that Robert Wise was emulating a pseudo-documentary style, but even the worst government documentary I've ever seen wasn't this grainy. If there's a reason for the grain that anyone knows of, please fill me in.


The best science-fiction film of all time   June 29, 1999
Paul McElligott (Lake Forest, CA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Let me qualify that remark with a few statements. Star Wars was pure fantasy in a sci-fi setting. Star Trek takes great liberties with technical accuracy, making it more space opera than real science fiction. 2001 probably qualifies as science fiction but the main ideas are more metaphysical than anything scientific. That leaves Andromeda Strain with the title of the best hard-science science-fiction film of all time.

The Andromeda Strain shows how a hard-science plot can be made exciting. True, the technology is a little dated, but it only adds to the realism. I'm sure this film won't appeal to the same people who will flock to rainless action flicks like this summer's Wild Wild West, but if you have a brain and your willing to use it, this film is great entertainment.

Oh, and just to correct the previous poster, Andromeda did come out on laserdisc and that transfer was gorgeous.


This movie is not "out of date"   November 3, 2001
dean toth (california usa)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

I've noticed one of the most often cited complaints from reviewers is that this movie looks "dated" - that the cars, computers, or clothing look "out of date"

This is like saying that any World War II flick looks "out of date" simply because the airplanes have propellors instead of jet engines.

Big, giant CLUE to you people: this movie's storyline is MEANT to take place in the 70's!!! (or late 60's). The Cold War took place then. Early satellite and bio-weapons research took place then.

Would you say a Civil War era movie looks dated cuz they use single-shot rifles with bayonnets???? NO!!! Similarly, this movie is NOT dated simply because of it's 60's/70's era computers..... the movie is SUPPOSED to take place during that time!!!! This is a tale of a cover-up involving an alien microscopic lifeform discovered during the 60's/70's and only barely contained at that time and not known since.

That said, this is one of the most clearly written and well thought out storylines in any scifi movie ever! Period. I, too, as previous nay-sayers have claimed, am a student of virology, genetics, evolution, and I disagree with those who say this movie has so many holes.

Crichton himself is a certified M.D. and definitely knows what he is talking about, even if it is theoretically cutting-edge. Besides, how can a student of terrestrial medicine pre-supposed knowledge of xenobiological functions; and even without that caveat, the biology presented in this movie is rather orthodox, especially when compared to such nonsense as is presented in modern pop-scifi (like the endless half alien, half human hybrids in the "trek" franchises)

Yes, for the ultra layman, some of the biology points may be hard to follow; sure there is little to no action; yes there are no "big" stars; and finally, YES, the computers and equipment look old compared to what we have now - simply because that's how they looked in the 60's and 70's and that is precisely when this story takes place.

In fact, that is one of the reasons the story is so compelling - that us lowly yet brainy humans - with comparatively primitive research equipment - can still elucidate a logical and workable response to such an insidious threat.

In fact, I see many unforseen parallels to modern bio-threats which we are now facing: STD's, bio-terrorism weapons, cancer, new/unresearched viral/bacterial vectors. And just think, these are all earth based - that is, based on carbon/ribonucleic chemistries.

What if a crystalline/silicate lifeform which we mistook for simple meteor debris showed up? One which directly fed on simple electromagnetic or high-energy nuclear/radioactive emanations not by metabolizing the energy into chemically useful reactions (i.e. photosynthesis, which is amazing enough) but by directly harnessing the energy into molecular catalyzation; changing less useful molecular/enzymatic configurations into more useful ones (the way our standard "metabolism" does).

what would we do? This movie attempts to answer what would have happened in the 70's if such an event occurred - or more accurately what it does is to explain what REALLY DID happen when our first 'scoop' satellites returned with actual E.T. microbe samples. This "actual" occurrence has been covered up according to the movie.

Or was it just a movie? That's the "X-files"-like charm of this flick. I recommend it highly unless you have a low tolerance for the "science" in science-fiction.