Pretentious Piffle

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2004)

This film would have to vie with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as the most pretentious science fiction movie ever.
What is it about sf films that make them think that, no matter how puerile or obvious or mundane the "revelations" they make are, just because they're sf they're automatically "deep and meaningful"? But if the same truisms were put forward in any other genre, they'd be laughed off the screen.
Sure, it's technically impressive, and sure, Jodie Foster is (as always)good, but is Robert Zemeckis really the man to try to convince us we're seeing Deep Thoughts? I don't know how convincing Carl Sagan's book is, I suspect print would be a better medium for what he's saying, but the movie? Sorry, we've lost Contact.