Last night I was bored and watched a film called “Contagion”on DVD (Released on 5th March 2012 ) and here is my review Please don’t read if you have not seen the film, spoiler alert.
Here is a trailer…..
Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.
The outbreak begins with Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), a businesswoman who returns home to Midwest America and spreads the deadly disease to the local population. What ensues thereafter is a puzzle solving connect-the-dots game, as The World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control send their best scientific minds (Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle) to track the disease back to its origin, contain its spread, and develop a vaccine. But this new force of nature isn’t the only problem the doctors must contend with. There is also greed, panic and politics that are just as dangerous as the virus itself.
The film has many many stars (including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne) and moves from character to character in a quick manner, dispatching some with very quickly before moving on to new characters for the story to follow. Which makes it very hard to connect to any particular character on an emotional level.
And I think that’s the main problem, there are just far too many stars and by the end of the film you don’t really care who lives or who dies. The effects and action sequences are good. The acting and story are ok, and the investigation of the cause of the disease was intriguing. But I have to say I did not like the ending. It was far too “and they lived happily after” for my liking. Maybe Im am bit hard in my old age but I personally think they took the easy way out in ensuring that a cure was found.
Was it worth a watch? Well it could have been a lot better. iI there is nothing else on and its a sunday afternoon then yes maybe it will pass the time, but other than that no. To be honest, in my personal opinion, you are not missing much if you don’t see it.
What did you think?
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Blog of Darren Derbyshire 