VIRUS (1999)
Rating: 2 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars - Debatable 2.5 stars - Some people may like it 3.0 stars - I liked it 3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: John Bruno
Written by: Chuck Pfarrer and Dennis Feldman, adapted from the Dark Horse comic VIRUS
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, and Joanna Pacula
Ingredients: alien creature, troop of well armed crew members being stalked
Synopsis: With their tugboat damaged by a hurricane, the tugboat crew seeks refuge in the eye of the storm, only to find another ship there: a huge, deserted Russian space research vessel called the Volkov, equipped with dozens of machine rooms and mechanized labs. Exploring the Volkov, the tugboat crew comes upon the scientist Nadia (Joanna Pacula), the frantic sole survivor of some sort of massacre. Nadia claims that an electronic life form has invaded the ship by satellite and that the alien is using the Volkov's power and labs to manufacture cyborg-like creatures in an attempt to destroy mankind. The alien life form uses humans for spare parts.
Of course nobody believes Nadia until people start disappearing and showing up as spare parts on robotic attackers. Can Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis), Steve (William Baldwin), and the others defeat the alien aboard the Volkov before it takes over the world? Lucky for them the scientific research vessel happens to contain an ample supply of guns, ammo, missiles and thermite grenades.
Opinion: I love the cast of VIRUS. Donald Sutherland as a creepy sea captain; Jamie Lee Curtis as the heroine; William Baldwin as a seaman; it can't get any better than this. VIRUS also has good effects, courtesy of director John Bruno who happens to be a special effects expert. VIRUS marks his debut as a director. I even like the bad guy: a ruthless, faceless, personality-free, alien life form made of electricity trapped in the circuitry of the ship.
What VIRUS lacks, however, is suspense. VIRUS works like a 50s B-movie with an upgraded budget. People stumble along, weather a few attacks, and at last find a loud way to end the thing. Ideally in a movie you want the good guys to face a deadly opponent they know nothing about. Through narrow escapes and small clues they should slowly learn enough to theorize a way to beat the thing. But in VIRUS finding out about the enemy is done too quickly and easily; it's just a matter of believing whatever Nadia says, rather than thinking about clues. Similarly, in an ideal technothriller, the audience should be shown some of the devious traps the alien might be planning, in order to ratchet up the suspense factor when the unknowing heroes are shown. But in VIRUS the audience never gets shown the sneak peak, so a lot of opportunity for suspense is lost.
There are also some unanswered questions concerning the incongruous behavior of various characters. What does Captain Everton stand to gain from his actions? Why would a special forces expert become hysterical when all the civilians are calm? These actions don't make sense. Suspense is when you know a character well enough to see that his personality is going to put him in big trouble with the upcoming situation he doesn't know about. But when characters act unbelievably, some of that juicy anticipation is lost.
In short, it's fun watching the cast of VIRUS ham it up, and there are plenty of high tech booms and bangs in this movie for amusement. But VIRUS could be much better with a healthy dose of basic suspense.
Reviewed by David Sunga January 16, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by David Sunga This review and others like it can be found at THE CRITIC ZOO: http://www.criticzoo.com email: zookeeper@criticzoo.com
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