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Movie Review: Contagion
Feb. 24th, 2012 04:47 pmWith all due respect to Howard Tayler, author of Schlock Mercenary, I have to say that for me this movie was a bust. It ranked No. 5 on Howard's List of Movies for 2011, and I usually find his reviews pretty much in line with my own feelings. This one was an exception.
Maybe I've read too many of these disease books, and seen too many adaptations. The best word I could use for this film was "flat." There was just not much to it. Reviewers praised it for its accuracy in depicting what might actually happen socially, and how the various government agencies would respond. I watched it to see what would happen, but there was just no tension in the movie at all. Putting the explanation for how the virus got started at the end seemed woefully anticlimactic, and SPOILER: (Highlight the text between brackets if you've seen the show or don't care) [having it be the index patient's very own mining company that knocked down the tree that disturbed the bat that dropped the infected banana that the pig ate, which pig was then slaughtered by a Hong Kong chef who passed the pig's blood on to the first victim at a casino] just seemed like a total stretch. Brad Pitt and Lawrence Fishburne were more or less not there, Jude Law's character was more annoying than interesting, and the rest of the plot devices seemed useless and poorly crafted. I'm not saying any of the performances were bad - they just lacked luster.
Most of the critics and most viewers seemed to like the film. For me, this one just didn't ring the bell.
Overall rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
Maybe I've read too many of these disease books, and seen too many adaptations. The best word I could use for this film was "flat." There was just not much to it. Reviewers praised it for its accuracy in depicting what might actually happen socially, and how the various government agencies would respond. I watched it to see what would happen, but there was just no tension in the movie at all. Putting the explanation for how the virus got started at the end seemed woefully anticlimactic, and SPOILER: (Highlight the text between brackets if you've seen the show or don't care) [having it be the index patient's very own mining company that knocked down the tree that disturbed the bat that dropped the infected banana that the pig ate, which pig was then slaughtered by a Hong Kong chef who passed the pig's blood on to the first victim at a casino] just seemed like a total stretch. Brad Pitt and Lawrence Fishburne were more or less not there, Jude Law's character was more annoying than interesting, and the rest of the plot devices seemed useless and poorly crafted. I'm not saying any of the performances were bad - they just lacked luster.
Most of the critics and most viewers seemed to like the film. For me, this one just didn't ring the bell.
Overall rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
