Screamers

The other night I watched the movie Screamers. It's one of those movies I've seen on the shelf or listed on Netflix for years, but never picked up. Since it was a freebie via onDemand I decided to give it a shot. The fact that it based upon a Phillip K. Dick short story intrigued me. Overall the acting was decent and I liked the stop animation used for the creatures. It held my interest for the entire time and did a good job with the suspense.

However I think they could've played up the paranoia (who's human vs who's a machine?) as well as the political subterfuge (Is this meeting really an attempt at cease fire or an ambush? Is the leader really dead? Is there a new war starting on another planet?). All which is the meat and potatoes of PKD story. Unfortunately, the movie decides to visit these themes very little, and instead goes for the action shoot 'em up. They also feel compelled to throw in a very cliched love interest.

Overall, Screamers wasn't horrible, but rather predictable. I think it had potential to be a thinking persons sci-fi but fell short of that mark.

I was somewhat surprised to see that there's a sequel that came out not too long ago. I'm playing on watching it to see if they expand on PKD's ideas or simply resort to more of the same. At the very least seeing Lance Henrickson will be fun.