Screamers

 2.5/4

Starring: Peter Weller, Andrew Lauer, Jennifer Rubin, Roy Dupuis, Charles Edwin Powell

Rated R for Sci-Fi Violence and Terror, Some Language and a Brief Moment of Nudity

"Screamers" is a frustrating movie to watch.  It comes so close to working that part of me wants to recommend it for what it does right instead of calling it a miss for what it does wrong.  I am tempted.  There are some parts of "Screamers" that are excellent; there really are.  But the movie only gets the details right, and not the important stuff.

A civil war has been going on for five years on the planet Sirius 6b.  A mining company known as the New Economic Bloc ("NEB" for short) has discovered rich ore that will solve Earth's energy needs.  Unfortunately, extracting the ore released toxic radiation.  The miners went on strike only to face a violent crackdown by the NEBs.  Together with the science community, they formed the Alliance to fight back.  To do this, the Alliance created Autonomous Mobile Swords, which slice and dice anything with a heartbeat (or who isn't wearing a "tab" to block the signal).  They are known as "Screamers" for the terrifying metallic shrieks as they pursue their targets.  Now the war has reached a stalemate.

Commanding officer Joe Hendricksson (Weller) leads a ragtag group of Alliance members in a remote base.  Something out of the ordinary happens: a NEB soldier arrives alone.  He is quickly dispatched by a screamer, but he is carrying a message to invite Hendriksson to the NEB base to discuss a truce.  When getting further instructions from his superiors, he is told to stay put because peace talks are underway.  While deciding how to deal with such conflicting information, a ship crashes near the base.  The lone survivor, a military grunt named Ace (Lauer) tells him that untrue.  Believing that the entire planet has been abandoned, Hendricksson decides to act on his own.  Then he makes a terrifying discovery: the Screamers have become sentient.  And they are evolving on their own.

What did I like about "Screamers?"  I liked its style, its energy, and the sense of isolation and desperation that it creates.  These people are alone on a foreign planet fighting a hopeless war.  I really felt just how alone they are.  It's not a pleasant feeling, I guess, but it is powerfully conveyed.  And I liked the paranoia and guilt that is generated by discovery that the Screamers have become self-aware and have undergone an autonomous effort of self-improvement.  This isn't a new idea, and has been explored in movies such as the "Alien" franchise and "The Thing."  But unoriginal as it may be, it creates that feeling of mistrust with every passing moment, which is the important thing.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't pass muster on the acting or writing fronts.  From the cast, they come in two categories: Peter Weller and everyone else.  Weller, best known for his performance as the title character in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi satire "RoboCop," is in top form as the weary Hendricksson.  Weller has a unique skeletal appearance and original way of drawling his dialogue, and he uses his body very well.  There's no mistaking his feelings, and that makes it easy to sympathize with him.  His co-stars aren't as impressive.  Weller is surrounded by actors that are wooden or awful.  Andrew Lauer has enough enthusiasm to make Ace likable, but the actor's talents are limited.  Jennifer Rubin, as the Ripley wannabe, is boring.  Roy Dupuis and Charles Edwin Powell are awful as her comrades.

The film was directed by Christian Duguay, who also made "The Art of War" (the less said about that stinker, the better).  There is a sense that he is trying to put all the pieces of this film together but can't quite make them fit.  A better screenplay would have helped, certainly.  Characters are undeveloped, and the world building is lacking.  And while the film raises some intriguing ideas, there isn't much follow through.  I spent a lot of this movie wishing and urging that it would just take things a little further and really become a complete movie.  Alas, it doesn't.

And yet the film intrigued me and held my interest.  I was never bored or uninvolved.  I just keep thinking that with just a little more TLC, it would have been a good movie.  The pieces are there.