- We've run out
natural disaster movies so let's drive disease movies into the
ground!
If my memory
serves me, this is the second Steven Soderbergh film I've reviewed.
I didn't plan it, but hey, now he has a second chance to impress the
readers of this blog. I've got to say that disaster movies, be it
weather related or in this case, about disease, do not really
interest me so the movies run along a thin line at the get-go. What
interests me most is the post-apocalyptic after effects plot, the
star studded cast and again, Soderbergh's directing does catch my eye
(even if the last movie I watched of his was a disappointment).
Contagion might not have the meat I'm looking for but there is surely
enough to get me to watch it. So, on with the show.
Contagion's story
overall story isn't complicated. There is a virus that has hit the
human race, it has an incredibly short lifespan and it kills the
infected person long before any virus has the right to do so.
Through the movie, we follow the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and
its various levels of management, through two main characters: one
character who has lost someone dear to him and a blogger who believes
he is spreading the truth because he has all the answers. I promise
I'm not as annoying as Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law) but I'm
sure I know all the answers.
The cast for
Contagion is large and with it some big name actors but I think a lot
of the characters are wasted and pointless and sometimes both! Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet and the previously mentioned Jude Law, just to name some of the big names. None of the acting
was bad, though for characters I only really cared for Matt Damon's
last scenes. Jude Law is really the only one who really grabbed my
attention, I hated his character. No death was vile enough for his
character. His scenes were terrible as in I hate the kind of person
he is and he delivers it perfectly.
However, I think
the movie could have been improved with the exclusion of Law's
character. It detracts from other story lines, although with him in
the movie he provides an appropriate face to the villain instead of
it being a faceless millions of people killing disease. Ultimately,
for me that was a big distraction because you end up hating two
really different things in this movie, the disease (which, let's face
it, at the end of the day nobody wants any disease) and the blogger
Jude Law who is much too smarmy for his own good. The other actors I
mentioned are all acceptable but I feel as if there might have been a
sequence deleted as Marion Cotillard's story is left a little
unsatisfying. I suppose one can accept this due to her minor role
within the movie but it might bother people who don't like loose ends
in their movies no matter the calibre. The movie drops the ball on a
few science facts, none of which I picked up on in my first viewing,
but science folks might be bothered by it.
 |
| I deliver assumptions! |
I really couldn't
care about any character when they suffered a quick exit because you
just don't care about anyone who dies – or really anyone who lives!
I don't mind mindless death to prove a point, but when it's all
mindless the weight of death is gone as in a zombie movie, nobody
cares about the 100th zombie slaughtered do they? It's an
interesting premise, albeit not new, but I couldn't really root for
any of the “good” people and the loss of life was diminished by a
lack of bonding between the viewer and any given character.
I give it a 6/10
PS: Marion
Cotillard's eyes are really creepy. I think she can see my soul from
within whatever film I watch her in.
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