Screamers from 1995 based on the Phillip K. Dick short story "Second Variety" follows Hendricksson(Peter Weller) on the planet Sirius 6b, a once thriving mining operation now the setting for an uneasy standoff between two factions the Alliance and the New Economic Bloc(N.E.B.). Hendricksson has grown weary of the cold war taking a passive approach to the situation while allowing self replicating killing machines known as Screamers to bear the brunt of the burden, but when an opportunity arrives to possibly end the cold war he travels to the N.E.B. base in the hopes of kickstarting negotiations only to find that other forces are at play that pose a threat to both factions.
The movie in its opening act is terrific in setting up its world and characters on its relatively shoestring budget. Sirius 6b is a desolate wasteland where the the only inhabitants are soldiers who's only relief from the boredom are the occasional skirmishes with N.E.B. forces or screeches from the titular screamers to break up the monotony. Weller in particular does a good job as the battle weary commander Hendricksson and in the opening half of the film we get some great world building and atmosphere taking us through the desolation and ruination of this once thriving mining colony.
Unfortunately at about the half way point the movie begins to wear its influences on its sleeves as it begins to try cramming in the paranoia from John Carpenter's The Thing, the military intensity of Aliens, and even some transhumanist themes from fellow Dick adaptation Blade Runner. The second half is so chaotic and overly cluttered that it ceases feeling like its own story and instead feels like a cut and paste job of the previous 10 years worth of science fiction films. Even the design of some of the Screamers become blatantly Giger-esque not helping the Aliens comparisons.
Screamers is not a bad movie, there's genuine trade craft on display and there's clear passion in front of and behind the camera, but one can't help feeling a sense of deja vu thinking they've seen this movie before but better. It's perfectly serviceable as a rental, but you'll most likely forget having seen it in about a day.
The movie in its opening act is terrific in setting up its world and characters on its relatively shoestring budget. Sirius 6b is a desolate wasteland where the the only inhabitants are soldiers who's only relief from the boredom are the occasional skirmishes with N.E.B. forces or screeches from the titular screamers to break up the monotony. Weller in particular does a good job as the battle weary commander Hendricksson and in the opening half of the film we get some great world building and atmosphere taking us through the desolation and ruination of this once thriving mining colony.
Unfortunately at about the half way point the movie begins to wear its influences on its sleeves as it begins to try cramming in the paranoia from John Carpenter's The Thing, the military intensity of Aliens, and even some transhumanist themes from fellow Dick adaptation Blade Runner. The second half is so chaotic and overly cluttered that it ceases feeling like its own story and instead feels like a cut and paste job of the previous 10 years worth of science fiction films. Even the design of some of the Screamers become blatantly Giger-esque not helping the Aliens comparisons.
Screamers is not a bad movie, there's genuine trade craft on display and there's clear passion in front of and behind the camera, but one can't help feeling a sense of deja vu thinking they've seen this movie before but better. It's perfectly serviceable as a rental, but you'll most likely forget having seen it in about a day.