Contact..NOW

[RobertScorpio]

Well, we watched CONTACT last night, in HD. And I really love this movie, even still, after all these years. I know some wanted a more ‘slam bam’ ending, and wanted her to meet some real alien…but that would have ruined the movie. The movie is really about her, not aliens. And had some alien popped up, with seven legs, or a pile of goo, or a Star Trek-type bumpy alien dude, it would have ruined the best part of the movie; it was realistic as much as a science fiction movie could be.

And the ending, when she has no more proof than what a Christian has, as McConaughey points out to her, it brings it all home.

The movie has its detractors, and I am sure some of you will chime in. But I’ll take Contact over some of the more recent ‘alien’ movies, hands down. This movie…is good!!!

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Venardhi]

"They should have sent a poet."

I still watch it with some regularity, mostly when I find out someone else hasn't seen it.

 

[The Cutest of Borg]

This is one of my favorites. Contact is a very thoughtful and intelligent exploration of science versus faith.

 

[Christopher]

The movie's fairly good, but it's a fraction of what the novel is, a bare-bones distillation of a much richer work. Anyone who likes the movie but hasn't read the novel is missing out on 90% or more of the experience. So if you haven't read the novel, you should go get it.

 

[The Borg Queen]

Would it have killed her to take some pens and paper with her and spend seventeen hours WRITING about her experiences for those few seconds?

 

[dru]

The movie is even less interesting than the endless V'Ger fly through in STTMP.

 

[Ol Scratch]

I'd have preferred it if she didn't find anything. Maybe the remnants of an ancient civilization, for instance, but nothing living. What we got was a disappointment not because it was mundane, but because it was basically a holodeck encounter. Why even go through the pretense of having them travel through space when all they do is create some artificial simulation either inside the sphere or their head? It was so pointless.

I'd honestly have preferred nothing to that.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Why even go through the pretense of having them travel through space when all they do is create some artificial simulation either inside the sphere or their head? It was so pointless.

It wasn't entirely artificial - what about all the recorded blank tape? It may be blank, but time elapsed...

I watched the movie and read the novel. Maybe the movie comes off better if you've read the novel and can mentally interject the stuff from the novel into your memories of the movie, because I really like the movie and I've noticed a lot of people don't.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Why even go through the pretense of having them travel through space when all they do is create some artificial simulation either inside the sphere or their head? It was so pointless.

It wasn't entirely artificial - what about all the recorded blank tape? It may be blank, but time elapsed...

I watched the movie and read the novel. Maybe the movie comes off better if you've read the novel and can mentally interject the stuff from the novel into your memories of the movie, because I really like the movie and I've noticed a lot of people don't.

I read the book too, and there is no way that book, as written, could have been turned into a movie...I think Zemekis and his team created a different version..and it works, for me, as a realistic approached to what would happen if something like that happened....

A far better movie than the recent remakes of Scifi classics we have been forced to see the past several years..IMO...

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Starbreaker]

The movie's fairly good, but it's a fraction of what the novel is, a bare-bones distillation of a much richer work. Anyone who likes the movie but hasn't read the novel is missing out on 90% or more of the experience. So if you haven't read the novel, you should go get it.

I think the book is boring. This was actually one of the rare cases (the other being The Prestige) where I watched an excellent movie and read a mediocre book. The movie really captivated my imagination, and the novel really left me wanting more.

 

[DonIago]

Heh, for me that book/movie was Starship Troopers. It should be noted I saw the movie first.

Kind of makes me wonder whether, in the timeline where I read the book first, my opinion is any different.

On-topic, I thought Contact was a very cool movie. Haven't read the book, but Rob Lowe as a fundamentalist Christian was rather amusing.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Heh, for me that book/movie was Starship Troopers. It should be noted I saw the movie first.

Kind of makes me wonder whether, in the timeline where I read the book first, my opinion is any different.

On-topic, I thought Contact was a very cool movie. Haven't read the book, but Rob Lowe as a fundamentalist Christian was rather amusing.

What a great cast...Jodie Foster..Tom Skerrit...John Hurt...Angela Bassett..James Woods and others...

Rob

 

[IndyJones]

What a great cast...Jodie Foster..Tom Skerrit...John Hurt...Angela Bassett..James Woods and others...

I loved David Morse in it.

 

[HIj'Qa]

This was my into to Matthew McConaughey. I would have slept with him a few hours after meeting him, too.

William Fichtner is also great in this - i thought he was a blind actor!

The only thing that took me out of the film, at the time, and still does a bit, is all the real news people acting as . . . themselves. It has been done a lot since this was made. It blurs the line between fact and fiction. Like we don't have enough of that in reporting nowadays. It comes off as gimmicky to me.

 

[Ol Scratch]

It wasn't entirely artificial - what about all the recorded blank tape? It may be blank, but time elapsed...

Time could have passed just fine, but it was clearly a simulation as she found herself on a beach with her father appearing out of a glimmer in the air without ever leaving the sphere.

I watched the movie and read the novel. Maybe the movie comes off better if you've read the novel and can mentally interject the stuff from the novel into your memories of the movie, because I really like the movie and I've noticed a lot of people don't.

I liked the movie. I just didn't care for the ending at all. There really wasn't any reason to have the space travel aspect of it since the traveler never left the sphere or saw anything other than a city/outpost through a window that probably wasn't even really a window to begin with.

 

[Angel4576]

If you see the movie before reading the novel then it's ok. If you do it the other way around though you'll probably be disappointed with the final moments of the movie as compared with the final chapters of the novel.

 

[Christopher]

The only thing that took me out of the film, at the time, and still does a bit, is all the real news people acting as . . . themselves. It has been done a lot since this was made. It blurs the line between fact and fiction. Like we don't have enough of that in reporting nowadays. It comes off as gimmicky to me.

It was done a lot before this was made. You know that sequence in the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still where the various news anchors are reporting on the incoming UFO? All those people were real reporters playing themselves. In the '80s, V: The Series opened each episode of its first half-season with real newsman Howard K. Smith giving updates on the resistance against the alien conquerors.

 

[RobertScorpio]

This was my into to Matthew McConaughey. I would have slept with him a few hours after meeting him, too.

William Fichtner is also great in this - i thought he was a blind actor!

The only thing that took me out of the film, at the time, and still does a bit, is all the real news people acting as . . . themselves. It has been done a lot since this was made. It blurs the line between fact and fiction. Like we don't have enough of that in reporting nowadays. It comes off as gimmicky to me.

And thats what I did like about the movie..real CNN anchors/Jay Leno...it gives a realistic feel to it...I really don't consider the film a scifi movie, though it is...to me it's about Elle's life, and her ambition..and someone mentioned David Morse earlier, I totally agree...he did a great job as well...

Rob

 

[Mistral]

Contact was thoughtful scifi- a rarity in movies. Was it good? It was when it came out. Don't know if it holds up but, heck, Star Wars doesn't hold up....The book was good but went in places I, personally, didn't agree with. Still a damn good read, though.

 

[Bad Bishop]

Do our spy agencies (NSA, CIA, NRO, etc.) have the right to conceal all evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence? Do they have the right to overrule the scientific community and citizens who would (presumably) deserve to know that "something" is out there? Should evidence of ET's be classified as Top Secret in the interest of national security? To me, these are relevant questions raised by the film Contact.