The Andromeda Strain

TiVo recorded The Andromeda Strain (2008 version) as a movie it thought I might like. I read the book as a teen and really enjoyed it. So I thought I'd give it a chance. Boy, was TiVo wrong on this one!

Admittedly, it's been a while since I read the book, but, as I recall, the basic idea was that some dumb decisions, as well as some failures in technology, resulted in a tragedy. People died from an extra terrestrial germ that was brought back to Earth by a satellite.

This new movie has the bug on the satellite, but that's about where the similarity ends. I understand that changes have to be made to move from a book to a movie, but this is ridiculous. In this version, the military is actively evil. They kill people to hide their secrets. The bug apparently doesn't come from the far reaches of space, but a wormhole from the future. And it's intelligent. They used a few items from the book, but this is NOT the Andromeda Strain.

Add on top of that some bad CGI birds with shades of Alfred Hitchcock, and you've got the makings of one bad movie. I actually laughed out loud at times, it was so bad.