Screamers (1995)
A film review by Joshua McAdams
Copyright 1996 Joshua McAdams
When adapting a science fiction story to the big screen three pre-requisites are required: unique alien sets, interesting characters, and a "hook" that sucks the audience in. "Screamers", based on a short work by Phillip K. Dick, appears to have been assembled piecemeal by the interns at "Deep Space Nine". This film look so much like low-budget TV sci-fi that I was expecting Patrick Stewart to make a cameo. "Picard to Enterprise. There's no intelligent plot here. One to beam up."
Director Chris Duguay, the mastermind behind "Scanners II" and "Scanners III", made his first mistake when he signed on to this project. I mean listen to the plot: It's 2078 on the distant planet of Sirus 6B where two armies, the NEB (New Economic Block) and "The Alliance", battle for control of the vital Byrinium mines. The Alliance commander Hendrickson (Peter Weller) runs a depleted outpost that is protected by the real stars of this celluloid disaster: mechanical moles armed with spinning saw blades called "screamers."
When the NEB command sues for peace, Hendrickson and a space marine make the journey across Sirus 6B's scourched surface to the enemy fortress. Along the way they discover that the "screamers" have become self-aware and are independently upgrading themselves into more effective killers. At the NEB base, Hendrickson teams up with a buxom black marketeer (Jennifer Rubin) and a couple of soldiers in order to combat these dreaded subterranean menaces.
Duguay's second mistake is taking this script seriously. His attempt to inject suspense into this farce reveals just how weak the story actual is. To cover up this lack of content, he offers us mindless philosophy, generic romance, and cheesy point-of-view shots of "screamers" tearing along the ground at their hapless victims. Duguay lops a few plot twists at the audience but these are so blatantly telegraphed he'd have better luck sending them Western Union.
While the premise - technology, if given the chance, will attempt to destroy it's creator - is a good one, it is demonstrated far better in the "Terminator" films. Even die hard trekkies would feel insulted by this offering so it goes to reason that Joe Movie Goer should be doubly reluctant to plunk down a hard earned seven dollars for this drivel. You'd be better off renting a truely suspenseful sci-fi flick like "Alien" or "Predator" and steering clear of "Screamers" - it's nothing to shout about.
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