“Screamers” is another film based on the work of Philip K. Dick (“Blade Runner”, “Total Recall”). It is a film that may have worked better if he had an ounce of optimism in it but instead, it goes down the “Alien 3” route of maximum cynicism.

In “Screamers”, we see a future where the resolution to the Earth’s energy crisis has been discovered but concerns for the safety of miners that extract the wonder element causes a lengthy war. We meet Joe Hendricksson (Peter Weller “RoboCop”, “Naked Lunch”), who is stationed on Sirius 6B. This is where all the fighting occurs as underground circular saws, that have become self-aware, are picking off both sides. When brought down to a primitive level, it is “Terminator” meets “Tremors”.

Peter Weller is an actor that has real charisma. He manages to deliver some funny one-liners here. However, his character is quite uninteresting for the most part. The other characters aren’t given enough personality and become cardboard cut-outs. The robots in this film look alright but most of the time, they’re underground. As the film progresses, they get more advanced but not in a way that the effects particularly benefit them, which is disappointing.

“Screamers” is so bleak and dull at times that it’s hard to appreciate the finer aspects of the film such as the relatively rich concept. I’ve enjoyed some of the other films based on Philip K. Dick’s short stories a lot more as they’ve created even richer worlds and even richer concepts. With so few characters and with such an empty location most of the time, it becomes increasingly hard for the film to come up with anything that’s worth showing at times so that’s where the real problem is. Also, the ending is so depressing. “Screamers” has things going for it but not enough to make it worth watching.