Bullet Points: Screamers

Peter Weller is something of a national treasure. He has a coolness to him that comes naturally and doesn’t feel forced like that douche Mark Wahlberg. What is even more exciting is when you have a sci-fi movie that stars Peter Weller as the main character and you’re guaranteed that he’s going to be fighting robots. Weller + Robots = awesome!

Synopsis: Soldiers attempting to negotiate the end to a long-running war discover the robots they built to assassinate enemy combatants have gained sentience and are plotting against both sides.

• The Future: Screamers takes place in the year 2078, on the mining planet Sirius 6B. The planet has been the site of a war between the Alliance and the New Economic Block for 10 years. The war was mostly over boring stuff like mining and whatnot but what it led to was some crazy advancements in killing.
• The Screamers: At some point, the NEBs and the Alliance got tired of bombing the shit out of each other and realized that all that radiation just isn’t good for your sinuses. The Alliance developed what would become known as “Screamers”, a type of robotic killing device that would effectively stop the ground war from ever getting out of control. It also caused both sides to essentially “hole up” in their bunkers and stay out of the open.

• The Peace Process: A lone soldier makes his way over the horizon with a peace proposal in hand. Too bad for him, though, that he gets sliced to bits by screamers before he ever made it to the Alliance side. Let’s just say that the screamers aren’t interested in peace for anyone at this point.
• “You must be confusing me with somebody who gives a shit”: Peter Weller plays Commander Joe Hendricksson. He’s the leader of the Alliance on Sirius 6B and he’s been fighting this war for a very long time and is about as sick as anyone of hiding out in the bunker. Weller takes a young soldier with him and heads for NEB territory to figure out what is up with this peace proposal. Weller’s character is the grizzled vet who has all of the best lines. He’s just as in the dark as everyone else is since they’ve been stuck on the planet for so long but he’s able to make the command decisions to hopefully get them out of it.

• Screamer Technology: While the NEBs and Alliance have been trying to kill each other in various ways for a decade, the Screamers have basically re-designed themselves several times and are finding new ways to infiltrate and terminate the humans. Seriously, they’re turning into Terminators! The Alliance originally created the robots but now they’re sentient and all about killing on their own.
• The Characters and Dialogue: Peter Weller is the Commander and Ron White plays his second. The two of them have some good scenes where they discuss the war and what they’re going to be getting into afterwards. These two carry many of the earlier scenes and it isn’t until Weller leaves the Alliance base that White’s character loses his steam and ceases to matter. I wish that the film had spent a little more time with the Alliance post after Weller took off.
• Peter Weller: The story for the majority of Screamers has little to do with the screamers. It really isn’t until the final third of the movie that everyone realizes that they are more at fault than anyone knew. There is far too much time with Weller and company just walking around and not enough of the screamers killing people, in my opinion.

• We’re All Robots Now: By the time they discover that the screamers are manufacturing their own new models, they’ve all but been killed off. Weller plays detective a bit as he tries to figure out each of the models he’s come in contact with but he’s too busy running from them by the end that his attention gets turned elsewhere. The screamers are a cool idea in that they are learning new ways to infiltrate the human encampments but we don’t get to see any of it happen. It’s like teasing us with cool stuff only to not show any of it.

The Verdict: Screamers doesn’t have the biggest budget. It’s probably something that kept it from having any really cool scenes of screamer destruction in it. I enjoyed the story for what it was but it’s a little sad to think that these guys have been hanging out on this planet for 10 years and haven’t made an attempt to end the war by force. Weller is always likable and the best part of the movie but I would have enjoyed more for him to do. The robots needed another scene or two to get over their killing capabilities too. All in all, it’s an interesting movie that never crosses over into really good status. Weller fans will want to watch it but don’t expect any serious action.