Virus

Based on the Dark Horse comics series, this plays like a jerky computer game infected with the Alien clone virus. A crackling ball of electrical energy is transmitted via the Mir space station to a hi-tech Russian research ship. By the time the crew of a storm-lashed salvage tug climbs aboard, the ship is a latter-day Marie Celeste. Their drunken captain (Sutherland) plans to salvage the empty vessel, but then a terrified Russian scientist (Pacula) emerges from hiding, raving about a force that has occupied the ship and killed the crew. Tiny mechanoid creatures skitter about, an android-manufacturing workshop operated by larger mechanoids is discovered below decks, and the force uses the on-board computer system to state its intentions: the humans are a virus that must be eliminated. Having worked with James Cameron on The Abyss and Terminator 2, director and sfx wizard John Bruno has the technical credentials. But while he can fling together a competent action or special effects sequence, his handling of the plot and actors is strictly routine.