Time Theft Nation

REVIEW: Contagion (movie)

It’s pretty clear this movie was better off as a trailer: it’s the “New Year’s Eve” of dramas.

There were bits and pieces of suspenseful scenes that were thrown at you throughout the movie, but nothing really stuck. There were far too many story lines to really care about a single situation, but of course you’re supposed to feel immensely for humanity as a whole.

On the plus side, Jude Law did a really nice job in this movie as a dispassionate blogger and the same can be said for Jennifer Ehle, who played a Nobel-winning scientist. Unfortunately, Laurence Fishburne was pretty lackluster (rushed lines/contrived scenes).

There will be some people who think this movie is really well done because the cinematography is up-to-date with the current trends, however, the only climax is when you realize around day 44 that this movie is going nowhere.

Steven Soderbergh also used a lot of cheaps tricks at the beginning, such as showing Gwenyth Paltrow’s wedding ring while she’s talking on the phone with somebody who clearly isn’t her husband. Again, this isn’t all that important and people may think that this is entirely too critical, but in my eyes, these rapid story-setting ploys at the onset are the directors way of saying “you’re too stupid to figure this stuff out on your own”.

Finally, what the hell was Demetri Martin doing in this thing? I guess he was involved in some rather gruesome scenes and provided comic relief, looking goofy in a space-age lab suit.

I think you’d be better off just watching that awesome trailer again. I wish I had my $5 bucks back, that was a waste of time.