Crichton’s best novel of the same name was a taunt, tense, pre-computer age sci-fi thriller with Dustin Hoffman as scientist and protagonist Jeremy Stone, head of the Wildfire Biohazard Response team.

In this upgraded version, Director Mikael Salamon stuck to the story (Wow, what a concept!) and used 40 years of improved and expanded technology to rev up the action and adapt the film to 21st century science. It’s a place where the fiction is less improbable, the fantasy more believable, and, in the age of conspiracy theorists, corruption, terrorist threats and a new thrust toward space exploration are easily interjected into the film.

This time around, Benjamin Bratt (above) of Law & Order fame is Team Leader Jeremy Stone, with a supporting cast that includes Ricky Schroeder of NYPD Blue, Eric McCormack of Will and Grace, Daniel Day Kim of Lost, and Christa Miller of Scrubs.

In a nutshell, Project Scoop, launched to collect space debris and signs of life beyond earth, comes crashing down in a Utah town, where two teenagers find it and bring it home. Curious civil servants open what they think is a satellite and unwittingly release a highly-adaptable killer virus with a near instantaneous kill rate of 100%. Our scientists are “scooped” up and routed to assignments in a super-secret government lab five stories underground. In this medical mystery thriller, Stone’s Wildfire team (above) must establish what the virus is and how to contain the ever-morphing bug before it kills every human on earth. Should disaster strike within the Wildfire lab, the structure will self-destruct in a nuclear cataclysm.

I was fascinated by the integration of new technology in an old story; tracking the virus via 21st century technology is a logical upgrade in a film like this. Unlike many sci-fi thrillers who overdose on special effects, what we see here is comparatively believable: the retinal scanning, the thermal imaging, the military weaponry — it works because it is reality based. The world has faced biological terror and responded to the potential threat of pandemic illness. We have terrible weapons to deploy, but they may not work, and they may not be the best choices in the battle for survival.

Presented as a mini-series, The Andromeda Strain has a bit more time to develop both character and plot, and does so without dallying too long in insipid subplots. The on-screen time is devoted to moving the plot forward, keeping the tension tight, and throwing in a few twists and turns along the way.

It is a rare occasion when a film sticks to the original story; too many film adaptations of good books bear no resemblance to the original. In this case, the book, it’s first incarnation on film, and this new rendition, pass the test, and we, the viewers, reap the reward.

The unsuspecting townspeople are about to unleash Andromeda

The Wildfire Team confronts an entire community eradicated by Andromeda

Welcome to world of Luke Skywalker, Director George Lucas’s ground-breaking fantasy that would rev up the imaginations of millions of moviegoers. That was 30 years ago (May 25, 1977). Where were you when Star Wars changed the face of movies?

Thirty years isn’t a long time in the grand scheme of things, but it was nearly half my life ago. I was in the toddler stage of my 27-year stint as a film critic, and saw in Star Wars a kind of Cowboys and Indians adventure that roused imagination and was just plain fun. Good guys and bad guys. Not unlike John Wayne westerns relocated in time and space. Not unlike the newest fantasy realm inhabited by Harry Potter, Ron, Hermoine, Dumbledore and Voldemort (this generation’s Darth Vader).

I remember sitting near the back of theater during a non-peak-hour showing, my soda untouched, popcorn uneaten, as I sank into the fable, succumbed to the whimsy of the fastidious C3PO and the brave little R2D2, rooting for the man in white (Skywalker), shuddering at the heavy predatory breathing of the villainous Vader in his swirling black cape and gleaming enameled mask. As for Han Solo, he had all the roguish qualities of an Errol Flynn pirate, cocky smile and all.

While the first space altering film was Stanley Kubrick’s amazing but much more solemn and slow-moving 2001: A Space Odyssey,that film still adhered to old ways of creating illusion.

The unconventional, outside-the-box creativity of Lucas, and a team that included John Dykstra and the computer savvy geniuses that formed industrial Light and Magic and a host of ancillary firms that deal in special effects and computer wizardry — the magic that made films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, the Potter films, and a host of terrific movies in between, come alive.

From the first epic Star Wars trilogy (which now seems tame in comparison to its successors) to the second and far more technically sophisticated second trilogy (which ansers all the questios left hanging from the first), movie fans have come, bought tickets, and gotten their money’s worth. Not always through the stories, but most definitely through the technology.

I loved Star Wars, and the Empire Strikes Back, wasn’t crazy about Return of the Jedi or the first two “prequels” — especially Phantom Menace. That and Attack of the Clones seemed to sacrifice the story, adventure and characters on the altar of special effects. That changed in Revenge of the Sith, which worked for me, wrapping up the untold stories, answering the lingering questions. Revenge of the Sith brought back the humanity that made us cheer and root for our space heroes. For years my home was littered landspeeder models, character dolls, light sabers and other paraphenalia as my daughter and her friends were equally captivated by the heroes and villans.

Star Wars changed the face of movies, sometimes for the better, but not always. certainly not always. But first and foremost, Star Wars was and remains the one thing movies are supposed to be: terrific entertainment.

Author’s Note: for an in-depth look at George Lucas and the creation of Star Wars, you can reference my hometown alternative paper, at valleyadvocate.com (5/23/07).