A 2 hour build up to nothing

Rating: 1/10 (21 June 2019)

I first saw this when it was in cinemas in 97 and as I recall, I hated it. I recently caught this again on TV 22 years later and unfortunately, not much has changed. I thought that maybe I would have a different opinion after all this time but all the feelings of negativity came flooding back to me, the annoying characters, the contradictions, the religion versus science talk and incredulity of all involved just reignited the dread I had for this movie through and through.
Jodie Foster is working for SETI at the VLA in New Mexico and is trying to secure funding. A last ditch effort is successful due to an eccentric, reclusive billionaire industrialist. Fast forward 4 years and the program is again facing foreclosure as the president's science advisor considers the project a waste of money. At this time a signal is received from the Vega system and interest is renewed. The first signal is a series of prime numbers at regular intervals indicating that the signal is of intelligent origin. SETI consults with an observatory in Australia to confirm the authenticity of the signal and to continue recording. Naturally this upsets the U.S government as consulting with other agencies is a breach of "national paranoid security" (despite being allies), and the fact that the signal is meant for Earth and not a single nation is irrelevant so having heavily armed soldiers hanging around a civilian installation is supposed to do what exactly? Other than freak out already nervous civilian scientists, not much at all apparently.
A second signal is then received, this time it's a recording of Hitler opening the Olympic Games in Berlin. The fact that this was the first recording strong enough to escape Earths atmosphere is lost on these idiots and the idea that the signal is potentially from alien Nazi sympathisers becomes the main focus.
Embedded in the recording is thousands of pages of mathematical formulae and code. Annoyingly the U.S government is clearly not interested in sharing the information and as a result no one is able to decipher it with the exception of one eccentric, reclusive billionaire. In addition to the the code are schematics for building some kind of machine. Without knowing what it does or what it all means, the dumb government questions of "what does it do" and "what does it all mean" to scientists that haven't been given the opportunity to properly examine all the info or collaborate with international experts is irritating in the extreme.
So without knowing what it does and despite the voices of impending doom and gloom about possible Trojan horses and doomsday weapons, the machine is built anyway to the tune of almost a trillion dollars. Unfortunately it's all for naught as the whole operation is brought undone by a single religious nutcase turned suicide terrorist. Really? At perhaps the most secure facility on Earth a well televised zealot manages to pretend that he works there, get past security with home made explosives strapped to himself, get all the way to the entry gantry and blow the whole thing to hell. Normally, that, they say, would be that, but wait, what's this! In addition to a free set of steak knives, there's another secret facility all built and ready to go in Hokkaido Japan, and no one seems to question this?
So having one scientist talk to another in Australia is a breach of national security, but the building of a secret facility in the land of a former enemy, well that's OK as long as it suits our objective. So naturally Jodie Foster is the prime candidate to go, even though she was not eligible before given her lack of faith and we cannot have this atheist heathen as a representative of Earth, but it's alright now because, reasons!
From Foster's perspective once the pod is released into the machine, she ends up hurtling through vortexes and worm holes reminiscent of Star Gate or 2001 and ends up either in an alternate reality or virtual world similar to a beach she frequented on Earth and is approached by an alien that takes on the form of her deceased father. In the end, despite all the effort that went in to making the trip possible from deciphering the messages, getting around inevitable endless government red tape, the cost and the logistics of bringing it all together, the underlying message is that this is only the first step, we are not ready to know any more than that and we are all supposed to get along if we're to join any kind of intergalactic community.
From the perspective of observers, nothing happened and it was nothing but a big white elephant all perpetrated by none other than a reclusive eccentric billionaire. Foster's story is not believed, none of the recording devices worked and a senate committee is incredulous that they are supposed to take the story on faith, the very same thing they crucified her for not having earlier when they were first recruiting for test pilots.
How on Earth this was nominated for any awards and how it actually won any is beyond me. I hated everything about this. I never understood why we bother with things like SETI or even the voyager space program as in the event we ever do come into contact with anything, our first response seems to blow it out of existence before they destroy America and who cares with the rest of the planet. From what I know of the book, there appeared to be more international involvement and collaboration, which for me would have made more sense and made the movie more interesting. The Hollywoodening of movies that insist on eliminating the existence of other people beyond the U.S borders is tiresome and outmoded even for 1997. The excessive use of real life personalities playing themselves might have been relevant at that time, but doesn't give the movie any longevity and just distracts from the story. I might see this for a third time in 2041, if I'm still alive by then and if I like it, I'll know senility has set in.