This movie does one thing well, but it does it very very very well. It is masterful in its cold, sterile depiction of technology as well as metaphorically depicting the different worlds in which scientists and non-scientists exist.Other than that its just an OK movie. Worth watching, 6.5/10 if IMDb had half stars.There is no suspense until the climatic action sequence. It is a good sequence though.The special effects are outdated. Although there are some really good bits involving animals dying suddenly. Apparently they actually suffocated the animals until they passed out, then brought them back around.The ending scene of this movie is laughably bad. It involves the main character testifying with ominous music and ends on a goofy line, followed by goofy special effects.I think my favorite part of this movie was the random PA announcements that were taking place. The general ambiance and sets used in this movie is great.

For sure, the Andromeda Strain has an interesting premise! The inhabitants of a village in the middle of nowhere all die where they stand, but for a newborn and an oldster. The suspect? An alien microscopic life form carried to earth by a returning satellite. Thus a group of scientists is put together, more or less under duress, to investigate events. First at ground zero and later in an underground secret lab somewhere in a desert in Nevada. But after this promising start the movie makers forgot something. Shouldn't they put a timer on the whole thing? Granted they do that, but very late into the movie and even at that point they forget to inform group of investigators until even later because they scientists are incommunicado with the rest of the world. So the drama that is for the grab is lost and what conflicts arise never lead to anything serious that you would expect when disparate people have to work under pressure to save the world from extinction. This missed opportunity is born out by little mistakes, such as the fact that the men all are clean shaven even after days of hard work. In fact the whole movie looks crispy and clean. There is even drama fully cooked and ready when some members start to suspect that the alien life form might have something to do with biological warfare. But that moment of tension sizzle out to nothing. Another conflict arises when the scientists advocate to nuke the village, but the politicians hesitate. But it is hardly an issue that impacts the plot. While it should have as it leads up to a twist in the movie. The movie focuses on the scientific investigation using instruments that look hopelessly dated nowadays. A sizable part of the movie has the team go through a sixteen hour decontamination procedure involving a slow descend through five levels of the underground lab that ought to impress the viewers. And I would agree such painstaking thoroughness is impressive and a pain to watch to. And we then see them do the meticulously scientific research for another big part of the movie, which is again an awesome testimonial to the scientific method, but at times feels as exciting as watching paint dry. Blinking computer screens with unintelligible numbers don't do it for me. It is boring.The b rate actors are unable to add to the tension arch which doesn't mean they do a bad job, but they are just not able to amend for the lack of drama like a Henry Fonda can. He can make any dull line of conversation seem interesting but the actors that are billed here aren't up to it. At times the actors looked nailed to the ground, standing up erect and delivering their lines in an almost monotone voice. So now I really saw what wooden acting looks like. All in all the movie is still watchable while you are doing something else as well. For once this might be a movie that actually might do a lot better when remade. I suspect the novel by Crichton is still good material. Just add some more dialog and drama. All ready to go.

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).

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is a sci-fi movie with a difference: there are no light sabres here, no outer space travel, instead this is a thinking man's thriller. That's no surprise given that the source material came from a Michael Crichton novel; viewers will note plenty of similarities between this and the likes of WESTWORLD, for instance.In any case, this is a thoughtful, slow-paced sci-fi mystery in which a team of experts try to work out the nature of a killer virus that may have come from space. Of course, the tension soon ramps up when it becomes apparent that they're working against the clock. Almost the entire film takes place in a remote installation and the claustrophobic setting becomes a character in itself.I have to admit that this wasn't one of my favourite movies; some of the middle section seems a little stodgy with not much happening to further the plot. Still, it definitely picks up for the race-against-the-clock climax, and it's not often these days that you see something genuinely fresh and original in the sci-fi genre, so I can see why it holds the status of a minor classic.