Such a frustrating disappointment

Sadly Over-hyped

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

LIke so many viewers, I was disappointed with how it ended. Nevertheless, this is a non- stop work of high suspense in a world threatened by a disease that could spell the end for humanity. It is based on a book by the wonderful Michael Crichton (yes, the Jurassic Park guy). It involves a horrible virus that wipes out a small town. Faced with no knowledge of what could have done this, medical people and other scientists are faced with diagnosing the disease and then eradicating it. What follows is a race against time, a race against limitations on science. Usually when researchers look into something, they have a body of knowledge to guide their ways. Suffice it to say. This is a really good movie. I'm sorry that some reviewers would give this a one based on the fact that it was slow moving. Not enough explosions or alien invaders I guess.

Too bad that a white-knuckle premise is undercut by laborious execution. Seems an experimental space scoop has brought back an alien life form from outside Earth's orbit that has killed a small New Mexico town. The exceptions are an old man and a baby who somehow survived. Now a high-security laboratory set up for investigating such possibilities must determine the nature of the life form before it spreads. A small specialized group of scientists are assigned the earth-shaking task.The first 10-minutes or so are excitingly compelling. However the movie's remainder turns relentlessly inward into a self-enclosed laboratory space that soon stifles the promising beginning. Now I have nothing against technical argot, but 90-minutes or so of mainly analytic biology soon had me looking around my room. Compounding that esoteric dialog is the self-enclosed space of the multi-level lab itself. In short, the dialog seldom strays from scientific jargon while the camera seldom strays from small spaces. Too bad, because the dimension of an outside world is soon lost. And, after all, it's an outside world in all its diversity that is presumably in peril. Had the screenplay given the researchers more personal context, then the visuals could have relieved some of the monotony by cutting away to family or community. Some such would have humanized the race against time. At the same time, the cast conveys little of the crisis's intensity, and that includes the wise-cracking Reid who I guess is supposed to be comedy relief.That's not to say that the movie fails altogether in suspense or involvement. As indicated, the premise itself is loaded with potential and some manages to surface even amid an over-extended run-time and a stifling context. However, the general treatment appears to get carried away in the process.

Based on a Michael Crichton novel, and directed by Robert Wise, "The Andromeda Strain" opens in the town of Piedmont, New Mexico, where locals have been killed by an extraterrestrial pathogen. The film's creepy opening scenes watch as members of the US government investigate Piedmont's corpse-strewn streets, their hazmat suits and telescopic lenses suggestive of overwhelming danger and invisible menace.Nothing else in "The Andromeda Strain" approaches the unnerving brilliance of its first act. Instead the film follows a group of scientists into an underground research facility. Here they attempt to identify, categorise and neutralise the alien virus. Unfortunately, like Wise's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979), such scenes eventually get bogged down by lingering, Stanley Kubrick inspired shots of gear, computers and high-tech machinery. All superficial techno-details - Kubrick, in contrast, always blended metaphysics with the prosaic – Wise's aesthetic eventually sabotages what was once a promising premise.Wise directed "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in 1951, a scifi classic which reflected then contemporary fears of nuclear annihilation. A product of a different era, "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) plays like one of the decade's many anti-establishment, conspiracy thrillers. Paranoia becomes a survival mechanism, Nixon-era government officials conspire to drop bombs, and it is ultimately a secret military mission which delivers death on America's doorstep; whilst civilians nonchalantly go about their business, microscopic monsters scheme.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Contagion", "Day of the Dead", "Carriers", "The Crazies", "Rabid", "The Happening" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978).

Within the logic confines of the Cold War and the eternal quest for the upper hand in annihilation, space becomes a frontier for seeking the next new biological weapon. When a US satellite crash-lands in a remote town of Piedmont in New Mexico a sudden outbreak of a cosmic threat causes almost the entire town to die in mid-step. The terrifying reality of an uncontrollable epidemic initiates a clandestine Wildfire project, where the finest scientific minds are whisked away to a secure underground facility with state of the art technology and a self-detonating nuclear device set to explode to prevent any potential outbreak. The project itself was formed by a group of prominent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) specifically for this eventuality: to counterattack any extraterrestial form of life, that could cause a deadly epidemic. Together with fellow scientists Charles Dutton (David Wayne), Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) and Mark Hall (James Olson) they descend into the facility, where they attempt to isolate the new life form and diagnose the two survivors of Piedmont: an crackpot drunkard and a helpless infant.Transcending into Robert Wise's feature is a prolonged pay-off, mostly focused on the procedural side of such a scenario, slowly building the story and only about midway do we finally get down to actually finding out what the titular Andromeda strain is, which in turn leads to an intense and riveting finale. Meanwhile however we snail downward the facility with five separate levels - each with scenes of progressive sterilisation. The journey to the heart of the facility, where the nitty gritty essence of the research starts, is essentially tedious, albeit serving its purpose of setting up the final act and acknowledging the relapsed tension that such an occurrence would create. Although the fate of the world being at hand, the road to salvation is slow, meticulous and affords no space for a misstep. Despite the slow unwinding there is also little in the way of character development, possibly only Kate Reid's cantankerous Ruth offering a stronger imprint on proceedings, which are otherwise dominated by the science and the crawling Armageddon.Midway the lethargic pacing stalled my interest, but once the story unfolds all the pieces fall into place delivering a high-tempo ending within this otherwise sedentary movie. Coupled with arguably the most exact scientific jargon in sci-fi features history and a overall believable background (despite some ridiculous mumbo-jumbo by one of the scientists about the possibility of microorganisms being sentient) delivers a sombre piece that can bore most, but will engage those who offer the movie their mind and body.