Screamers

Screamers; Science-fiction, Canada/ Japan/ USA, 1995; D: Christian Duguay, S: Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, Jennifer Rubin, Andrew Lauer, Charles Edwin Powell, Ron White, Michael Caloz, Liliana Komorowska

In 2078, a huge war has been going on for 10 years on planet Sirius 6B, where miners have been digging for the powerful resource Berynium. The planet is also filled with the deadly "Screamers", underground mole robots that kill with their sharp blades. Colonel Joe Hendricksson is surprised when he gets a message from Colonel Cooper in his base pledging for a peace agreement. Together with Jefferson, Joe heads for the enemy base in order to build a peace agreement. He meets Becker, Ross and Jessica who bring him to the NEB commando in order to find Cooper, but they don't find anyone alive. When it is discovered the 'Screamers' can also transform into human form, Joe gets suspicious about everyone. Back in his base, he discovers ‘Screamers’ masked as little boys have killed everyone, and even Becker turns out to be one. Together with Jessica, he finds an escape rocket and flies off back to Earth upon discovering she too is a ‘Screamer’.

Considering it is based on Philip K. Dick's short story, science-fiction film "Screamers" is a disappointment, one of those cheap Sci-Fi flicks that somehow manage to attract the viewers with it's unusual story and setting, but already after seeing 5 minutes of it they get bored and tend to go watch something else. Peter Weller is great and does more than his poorly written role of Colonel Joe allows him to, the set-design is good and some of the ideas present are solid, like when Joe catches Jefferson oozing off by watching a porn channel on his glasses or the exotic look of the desert on the distant planet covered over night with snow, but the story lacks the essential passion and spark that would pull it out of the category of a mass of average Sci-Fi films due to the monotone tone and a few irritating cliches, especially the "Bad guy shows up from nowhere in the last minute", madly nonsensical moments and a complete deprivation of spirit, while the scene near the end where the heroes are shooting at little kids (actually disguised 'Screamers' robots) is just plain wrong. Sadly, despite a few occasional virtues, it's just a boringly grey film that just 'screams' for some color and energy.

Grade:+