In the tradition of Alien, David Koepp, a Jurassic Park screenwriter, entertains with “Cold Storage,” a classic tale of a space-wrought mutation evolving on earth into something terrifying. Koepp’s technical description of the organism that is our villain is fascinating, even if it echoes the creatures from Men In Black. The bioterrorist hero Roberto Diaz tackles the monster twice, decades ago and now, and a race for dominance ensues, with Diaz joined by an entertaining wannabe couple, an ex-prisoner and a single mother. The plotting is straight from the Jurassic playbook, tight and fast, and Koepp brings the organism into terrifying life. I found the narrative style, hopping from point of view to point of view, including from that of the evil blob, to be somewhat distancing, so that even though individual scenes often crackled with acidic humour, the overall effect turned out to be muted. Nonetheless, a rattling yarn indeed.
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