Contact..NOW

[RobertScorpio]

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.

Agreed, Mistral..

I have always considered ID4 and CONTACT as two good movies for what they were trying to be...ID4 is the slam-bam version of our first contact with Aliens, and Contact is the more subtle version seen at a more realistic level...but both being very good at what they do...

SIGNS, which I also liked very much, isn't really an alien invaision movie to me. Its really about Mel Gibson's character and his loss of faith, and regaining it, and how his character evolves in that movie...

MARS ATTACKS is just a silly movie. Its not so much an alien movie as it is a homage to Ed Wood....and thats how i see that alien invaision movie...

Spielberg's War of The Worlds doesn't quite click on all thrusters for me. And unlike most people, who just love to hate Tom Cruise, I blame the short-comings of that movie right on Spielberg's shoulders. Cruise, I thought, did an okay job playing the role as written....but the story and plot was just a mess...IMO...

So, that's my walk down recent so called 'aliens invade' movies....

Rob
Scorpio

 

[zakkrusz]

Contact holds the record in my book for the most anti-climactic disappointment. Not really a fan of the movie, personally.

 

[The Borg Queen]

Should evidence of ET's be classified as Top Secret in the interest of national security?

Which nation and why?

 

[Tulin]

My favourite movie of ALL time.

The theme and what should have ben the tag line for the film was, "One woman's search for order in chaos".

In that sense, the film is about ALL of us and speaks to ALL of us, because that is what we are ALL trying to do with our lives, find order in chaos.

Jodie is BRILLIANT and I will say for the hundredth time, it was a crime she WAS NOT EVEN NOMINATED for an Oscar for this role.


I feel sorry for people who don't like it, or even worse, "don't get" this film. You are TRULY missing out on an AMAZING experience.

 

[Kryton]

In my all-time top 5. I thought the book would be impossible to film with its endless interviews of candidates and several of them chosen with their tedius backstories.. None of that was remotely necessary to the story and Zemeckis knew what he was doing when he pared it down.

Haddon was underused...probably judiciously so, but I found John Hurt's character to be strangely compelling and might have enjoyed seeing more.

 

[Arrqh]

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

I really enjoy the movie, but the end really bugs the heck out of me. Instead of making it ambiguous and letting the audience draw their own conclusions, they tell us that there is concrete proof that the journey did indeed happen and that the evidence is being suppressed for nebulous reasons. I haven't read the book (it's been on my list of books to read for ages) so I don't know if this is the same. But I hope it isn't. Because it always seemed to me that the story is more about the nature of faith then anything else... and if we, the audience, knows that there is proof then faith is no longer required on anyone's part and thus it undermines itself.

However, I look past this ideological flaw and still consider it a great film

 

[Kryton]

In the book there is ever so small an actual PHYSICAL piece of proof inadvertently brought back.

 

[RobertScorpio]

In the book there is ever so small an actual PHYSICAL piece of proof inadvertently brought back.

I think the movie works best with out the physical proof...the message of the movie is that she is no different than others who cling to a belief with out too much evidence to support it..

and if you think about it? The 'blank' time that is proof is no more provable than moses talking to 'God'...she can't, nor could he, prove it...

I like the ending, and find it superior (yep thats right) to the books ending, if taken as a movie, as this was...

Rob

 

[V]

spiritualistic flim-flam trying to pat us on the back and reassure us that blind faith will be magically rewarded.

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.

she does have proof; 18 hours of static for what should have been 5 seconds of real-time.

 

[Christopher]

spiritualistic flim-flam trying to pat us on the back and reassure us that blind faith will be magically rewarded.

Which was definitely not the theme of the book.

 

[The Borg Queen]

she does have proof; 18 hours of static for what should have been 5 seconds of real-time.

Exactly.

 

[MIB]

if I recall correctly, in the book there was even more proof that the journey happened than there was in the movie; five witnesses (not just one), camera static, structural stress on the pod indicating it went "somewhere" and even traces that the pod was exposed to cosmic and stellar radiation which proved that it left Earth. Of course, that also doesn't count the little bit of evidence that was brought back inadvertently.

 

[RobertScorpio]

spiritualistic flim-flam trying to pat us on the back and reassure us that blind faith will be magically rewarded.

Which was definitely not the theme of the book.

But totally worked for the movie....IMO

Rob

 

[The Borg Queen]

if I recall correctly, in the book there was even more proof that the journey happened than there was in the movie; five witnesses (not just one), camera static, structural stress on the pod indicating it went "somewhere" and even traces that the pod was exposed to cosmic and stellar radiation which proved that it left Earth. Of course, that also doesn't count the little bit of evidence that was brought back inadvertently.

Which was what?

I've not read the book.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I just remembered that that line " They should have sent a poet." was the cheesiest line I've heard in a while. It was just trying too hard.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I haven't seen Contact in a long time and it's been even longer since I've read the book but both are among my favourite science fiction movies and novels. The ending always pisses my friend off lol. It does have a great cast though...and it remains maybe the only film of Jodie Foster's that I actually enjoy watching on a constant basis.

 

[rac76]

I used to be able to quote some of the movie, but with the fact that I'm getting older, I don't remember the details. This is one of my favorite movies, and one of my fave Jodie Foster flicks. One of these days I will try to re-watch it.

 

[bigdaddy]

I don't like the ending because it's clear that 18 hours = she met aliens and that info was never released?! It pisses me off, but otherwise great movie.

 

[Emher]

I think it's not only a fantastic movie, but I consider it to be one of the best sc-fi movies of all time. Have loved it every since I first saw it.

 

[MIB]

if I recall correctly, in the book there was even more proof that the journey happened than there was in the movie; five witnesses (not just one), camera static, structural stress on the pod indicating it went "somewhere" and even traces that the pod was exposed to cosmic and stellar radiation which proved that it left Earth. Of course, that also doesn't count the little bit of evidence that was brought back inadvertently.

Which was what?

I've not read the book.

Spoiler: Spoiler on the book

Information. Specifically, one of the aliens let slip that there is a message of sorts embedded into the number pi if you calculate far enough into it- suggesting the universe was engineered by someone or something. Arroway returns and runs a lab dedicated to calculating pi further than anyone has gone while running the numbers through pattern recognition software. The book ends when Arroway hits the first marker where the series of numbers, converted to base 11 math and displayed in binary, creates an image of a perfect circle. It is also noted that beyond this marker are other signs, each one more complex and richer in content as you go further into pi.