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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (63) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (23) | DVD (5)
Despite its lineage and some impressive special effects, Contact is a disappointingly earthbound production, weighed down by the ballast of talking-heads dramaturgy and bloated storytelling.
If Contact is disappointingly soft in the head, it can also enthrall. Zemeckis is such a potent imagemaker that he is capable, for long stretches at a time, of sweeping you up in his vision.
Something like one of those mysterious asteroids that get the astronomers all worked up: a large body of gaseous matter surrounding a relatively small core of solid substance.
Like Jodie Foster's hopeful space voyager in the picture, "Contact" may not travel quite as far as it hopes to go, but the trip is worth taking nonetheless.
Begins with a big bang, gradually falls into a lull and finally succumbs to entropy.
Contact takes forever to lift off.
Thoughtful adaptation of the Carl Sagan novel.
Uma ficção científica que confere peso semelhante aos dois termos do gênero: se sua narrativa ficcional é intrigante e bem desenvolvida, sua ciência jamais se entrega ao implausível.
...one of the best pure science-fiction films since 2001.
No wonder the astronomer's philosophy of contact boils down to this: Don't call me, I'll call you.
With all the science and technology, Zemeckis and the writers made room for spiritual debates (some of them painfully slight), political commentary, and a strangely tepid and inert romance...
Magical, captivating entertainment.
Robert Zemeckis crafts a very good science fiction drama, but in many ways it does lack a bit. The sheer scope of the film is grand, its ideas are very good, interesting and captivating, but there are times that the film feels a bit underdeveloped and it could have stood out more due to the fact that it has some very good ideas and acting on display on-screen. Watching the film, I felt that at times, it felt a bit too preachy, and it could have toned down a bit, but as a whole, Contact is an engaging picture, one that boasts impressive performances and a good story. However, I felt that the film considering what it deals with should have been much better as well. This isn't a bad film by any means, but it does leave a bit to be desired in terms of its story. The problem is that it tries to be far too ambitious, and it leaves a few things to dwindle and it never comes to fruition, which is a great shame because Contact really could have been a remarkable and highly memorable Science Fiction drama that could have stood out among other genre films. Contact is a good film, but it's not one Zemeckis' best efforts. For what it is, it's entertaining film, but at times we can see that the story strains a bit and it tries to overshadow the sometimes lacking plot with far too ambitious ideas, which like I said never really comes to light, and it's a shame because Contact had all the ingredients of a great Science Fiction picture, but it could have been so much better as well.
Super Reviewer
Fascinating story about first alien contact. Brilliant story telling in which complex ideas are communicated simply enough to be understood by a non-technogeek audience. (I could have done with a little less religious grandstanding though.)
Robert Zemekis and Jodie Foster take on Carl (who died before the film was finished) Sagan's optimistic speculation on what the first alien (as in: from space not Uzbekistan) contact might be like. Interestingly the hypothesis goes (like in K-Pax) to thought being the fastest way to travel. Science geeks everywhere will sumptuously bathe in the obligatory sense of awe and wonder. Billions and billions of stars.
It's nice to see a science-fiction movie go into depth about things and not just have aliens blowing things up everywhere. Discussions about religion and the existence of god, relationships, space and other things really give great depth to the movie and it's characters. The concept here is great and original, and the execution surprisingly engaging and incredibly interesting and realistic. A great, but little known film from a great filmmaker with a great, cast that performs beautifully. Come in contact with Contact at least once.
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