I was never a big fan of this film its more melodrama than scifi, but after rewatching it after many years I found it almost unwatchable. Zemeckis did a horrible job as did Jodie Foster. Its a scifi soap opera thats less than an actually soap opera. Its hard to believe how bad Jodie Foster is and how Zemeckis approved her performance. I changed my rating from 7 to 3.
shareI like the movie but the book is much better. Have you read it?
shareMy mom read the book long before the movie came out. and she was so angry about the results of the space trip that she threw the book into the fireplace after she was done. She was expecting actual aliens and another planet...and got a lemon, just like we did in the movie.
She told me the only real differences between the novel and the film were:
- Ellie has dark hair and is basically Carl Sagan with boobs
- the device allowed several people to travel in the pod, not just one person
- the story obviously takes place in the time period Carl Sagan wrote it (probably the 70s or 80s, didn't check the publication date) so the culture and tech in the story would probably look dated
I personally couldn't get into it because the wording was so boring, so dense, and soooo....ugh! It was as if Carl Sagan had swallowed a dictionary and an astrophysics book, and vomited both into his novel. I'm amazed anybody could get a script out of that. It's one of the few sci-fi novels I've had problems getting past the first pages due to the ridiculous complexity of the writing. The only other book that ranks up with that kind of writing is "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede."
"It was as if Carl Sagan had swallowed a dictionary and an astrophysics book"
Well yes, he was a scientist before he became an author and science popularizer. Contact was his only work of fiction. He goes much deeper into concepts that are examined in the story. It's pretty interesting IMO.
"She was expecting actual aliens and another planet...and got a lemon"
Hehe, Sagan was one of the advisers for 2001 ASO that told Kubrick not to show any aliens in the movie. He was smart enough to know that any depiction of aliens would just not be convincing for a Hard Sci fi movie.
Well, he sucks at fiction. My dad used to watch him on the original "Cosmos" show (because my dad's an engineer and a science nerd at heart), and even he attests that Carl Sagan just liked to hear himself talk, and his book was not much different.
share"My mom read the book long before the movie came out. and she was so angry about the results of the space trip that she threw the book into the fireplace after she was done. She was expecting actual aliens and another planet...and got a lemon, just like we did in the movie."
Maybe Stargate would be more to your liking? I personally was very happy they didn't show any squeaky plastic toys.
Shut up, Mister Moan.
You may be right, I haven't seen it in years. One thought I do remember is that Jodie Foster horribly overacted. I remember finding the ending anti-climactic. Plus the romantic story line between Jodie and Matthew - it was unnecessary. It wouldn't surprise me if the OP is 100% correct.
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