Screamers Details

Resembling a less atmospheric hybrid of Alien and The Thing, this dingy adaptation of Philip K Dick's short story Second Variety is only a moderate success. Peter Weller (RoboCop) plays the soldier attempting to negotiate peace with his futuristic enemies, who comes up against the eponymous deadly defence units, which have evolved into increasingly sophisticated adversaries. Although there are decently mounted action sequences and the post-nuclear production design is nicely realised, there are far too many lulls in the story and, crucially, with the exception of Weller, it's difficult to care whether these underdeveloped characters live or die.

Paranoid science fiction, bleak in tone but interesting in its speculations about intelligent machines and violent people; judging by the soundtrack song, rock music will regress in the future.