This miniseries was mostly a 7.5 or so for me, until the last half of the final part where they proceeded to:
But perhaps the most burning of the flaws with this miniseries was the action that occurred when the nuclear fail-safe was activated. Besides being motivated by a plot contrivance rather than logically occurring as it did in the novel, it was also horribly dragged out.
I recorded this and watched it back via Sky+ (Tivo-esque machine for those of you not in the UK) and I must have fast forwarded through most of that climbing and crawling sequence. It actually seemed to me like because they had a few ex-24 stars, they felt like the thing needed to happen in real time.
Do film-makers really think we need to see every excruciating detail of climbing up ladders, climbing down ladders, throwing thumbs, climbing into vents, climbing out of vents, crawling across a floor, crawling up a wall, struggling to remove a key-card, struggling to remove a thumb.
Just get to the point, we don't want to see 10 minutes of padding in a 15 minute "action" sequence!
- Basically ignore (they threw in a casual explanation) the two survivors of Piedmont sub-plot
- Ignore the sub-plot (even if it was a horribly clichéd one) of the estranged wife of Dr Stone, and rebellious son
- Ignore the fact that there were airborne rubber eating Andromedas above Piedmont when the helicopters flew over
- Turn the Andromeda strain into a visible on-screen entity
- Provide no clear reason for why Dae Kims character died upon throwing a thumb
- Flub the ending of the reporter sub-plot, so it became a total "Who Cares?"
- Give Andromeda an actual (and completely dumb) origin, rather than leave it mysterious like the novel
- Bore us all to death with environmentalist clichéd 1960s Star Trek-esquire moralising
- Bore us past death to "government conspiracy" plot line that's so horribly overdone
- Provide no reason as to why there was lots of rubble falling down the central shaft
But perhaps the most burning of the flaws with this miniseries was the action that occurred when the nuclear fail-safe was activated. Besides being motivated by a plot contrivance rather than logically occurring as it did in the novel, it was also horribly dragged out.
I recorded this and watched it back via Sky+ (Tivo-esque machine for those of you not in the UK) and I must have fast forwarded through most of that climbing and crawling sequence. It actually seemed to me like because they had a few ex-24 stars, they felt like the thing needed to happen in real time.
Do film-makers really think we need to see every excruciating detail of climbing up ladders, climbing down ladders, throwing thumbs, climbing into vents, climbing out of vents, crawling across a floor, crawling up a wall, struggling to remove a key-card, struggling to remove a thumb.
Just get to the point, we don't want to see 10 minutes of padding in a 15 minute "action" sequence!