SomeUselessGeek Not a good remake. Plenty of plot points borrowed from the book, but lots of fluffy stuff added that doesn't make any sense and leaves one with an itch. Lots of dumbness, particularly later in the flick. People croak who shouldn't have and some don't croak who reasonably should have. The NSA is involved somehow in a creepy, back-channel way that is never explained and which makes no sense in the first place. Shadowy players go around whacking people without covering their tracks at all. Dumb, dumb, dumb.Lots of "surprises" are telegraphed far in advance of their reveal. Lots of "mysteries" are obvious long before they are solved. The rate of spread of the disease is far in excess of physical possibility. The solution to the disease could not possibly be spread quickly enough to deal with it, but the filmmakers figured that viewers' minds were already shut off by that point anyway.It's hard to believe that a mess like this could have been hacked out by the Scotts, but then, so was _Prometheus._ Okay, I believe it now.

SnoopyStyle A satellite crashes in southern Utah. A teenage couple finds it and brings it into the town of Piedmont. A military retrieval team tracks it to the town and finds the population dead. They are also taken quickly by the contagion. General Mancheck (Andre Braugher) activates the Wildfire Alert. Dr. Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt), Dr. Angela Noyce (Christa Miller), Major Bill Keane MD (Ricky Schroder), Dr. Tsi Chou (Daniel Dae Kim), and Dr. Charlene Barton (Viola Davis) are retrieved to investigate the outbreak. The victims' blood get clotted or they commit outlandish suicides. A man and a baby are the sole survivors. They are brought back to the Wildfire Lab. Reporter Jack Nash (Eric McCormack) gets a tip about the incident and leaves rehab. Project Scoop to collect samples from a wormhole is headed by Mancheck unbeknownst to President Scott who proposes underwater mining which could wipe out an unique environment.This stretches the two hour 1971 movie into a 4-part three hour mini-series. The 1971 movie is already extended. This one adds on a lot of stuff including The Happening. It also suffers from complicated scientific talk just like the original movie. It does have enough flash to keep it energized but it's not an improvement. Overall, it's watchable TV fare that leaves one in an empty Buckyball.

ELOrocks17 After reading many reviews (about 100 of them) on this site, it seems like we have reached a consensus on this junky remake:1. Zero suspense 2. Rainbow cast 3. Ridiculous sub-plots 4. Nonsensical science 5. Shamefull ripoffI would agree with everything above. I too saw the original movie many years ago. It was masterfull in drawing you in to the confines of the plot. The suspense, the isolation, the last best hope of mankind to solve the riddle. Never once did my mind wander as to who theses "actors" were. They were so believable as Top scientists, you left the movie thinking they were real Doctors. The story did not require stupid lame subplots to fuel the movie, the main storyline was more than enough. The end result was a suspenseful, edge of your seat, clock ticking away type movie that left you exhausted at the conclusion, allowing yourself to finally swallow that lump in your throat that has been there the last hour. Bravo!Having said that, lets now examine the remake:This movie (if you can call it that) suffers from what most re-makes do. The times are changing. Gone are the thoughtfull, well made, movies that inspire viewers to use their imagination to think things out. Most movies today are about money, not about accomplishment. This crap is just another excuse to dip into that well of good movies to see if they can squeeze a few more dollars out of it. Instead of making a straight science-fiction movie, the producers no doubt formed a focus group of drunk and stoned college students to see what they want in a movie. Of course, Hollywood has to make sure it offends no one except white people, and of course make every opportunity to bash America. This movie succeeded very well on both counts. The result, more PC/anti-American garbage that plays well in foreign countries. Skip this junk unless you are the type that think SCI-FI original movies are good.

marvin-131 I can't understand why people are bashing this movie - it's incredible! I never saw the 'original' version so the 2008 version was the first for me. An incredible movie with an excellent plot with great acting. I've seen it 3 times and each time I get more from it.After seeing this updated version I then made certain that I saw the original. The original version sucks - I mean, it's bad - and then some.I suspect that whenever you see a negative review of the 2008 version it's probably being written by someone who saw the original version when it was originally released (in other words - someone from the geezer brigade).This was one of the best movies I've ever seen and Benjamin Bratt is to be commended as with all the other people in the flick. It's an excellent story that's only been made even better.Hat's off to everyone involved.