From the Michael Crichton novel; The novel is gripping science fiction, in part because of the many pages of excerpts from fictional but convncing government documents and news releases, all in different fonts, to add authenticity. The film tries the same sense of reality by lavishly sterile high-tech sets. Alas, the central concept (of infection from extraterrestrial germs) is half-plausible, but the notion that the ET germs can eat energy is pure sci-fi nonsense, undercutting all the authenticity so laboriusly achieved.
