Contagion Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A fatal disease breaks out and is spreading around the world with no means to cure it.

Review: At first I really liked the way this movie started off showing just how easily a deadly disease can spread all over the world. This may be the first time the movie audience has seen an epidemic from the eyes of the scientists trying to fight the disease rather than just random survivors. But as the movie goes along, you start to feel your interest drift. We hardly get to know any of the characters, and so I'm not invested in them to care when they die. At the same time, we are shown society breaking down yet nothing ever really amounts to anything. If the world was truly falling into chaos, why were there no wars or crazy incidents beyond just mere looting, rioting, etc.? I feel the direction of the film was lost at some point and the writers weren't sure how to end it. The ending feels shallow as everything just goes back to the way it was before, and we haven't really learned anything except wash your hands more. Was this supposed to be a critique of society? Some sort of "what if" scenario to show how fragile our way of life is? I really don't understand what they were going for with this one. Because of this drop in quality toward the middle to end, I had to rate this movie much lower. I would have actually preferred they shortened this movie a bit and just made it the opening hour to "The Stand" remake...now that would be cool. I would say this film is worth a watch since the pacing is mostly good, the actors are actually quite superb, and it's a creative storytelling perspective, but don't go in expecting to be wowed.

Notable Moment: The final scene which is actually the first scene chonologically. It is interesting to see how chance circumstances started the entire epidemic.

Final Rating: 6/10