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An ensemble cast telling the story of a fictional pandemic; essentially Survivors, but in 105 minutes instead of several TV series. The cast are all fine, but because of the way the story is told they all punch way below their weight; not as well balanced as Ocean's 11 (also Steven Soderberg) or The Avengers. Laurence Fishburne's character was the main focus I guess, where all the rest of the cast are very much fringe players, to the extent that they could almost be cameo performances. The likes of Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Elliott Gould, Matt Damon or Gwyneth Paltrow just don't get much to play with.
As a scientist I am forever picking holes in what passes for science in the movies, but generally I thought that Contagion was alright. Though I did wonder why it was too expensive to use Matt Damon's blood to identify his immune response while millions of people were dying. Surely nothing is too expensive in that situation. Otherwise I think that everything else seemed legitimate enough, though I'm not a virologist.
An interesting enough story without doing anything new, which is unfortunate because with a cast like this it could have been great. Actually I thought the best part was right at the end when we saw Day 1 and how the virus started its human infection; though the fact that it was a bat-pig virus just made me think of the a rat-monkey a little too much.
The end was the best part. Mostly because it had all ended and I was free to leave the cinema!
ReplyDeleteOkay, that's a bit harsh. Think I'm on the same wavelength as you on this film. It was okay. Nothing special. Lacked any sort of energy or urgency for me. Very forgettable.
I'm not sure it was that forgettable, I did like the first couple of minutes as the camera concentrated on people touching everything as we wondered where the infection was going. But sure, it wasn't anything special.
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