Out of this world movie

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2000)

Warning: This review contains spoilers (which may be harmful to your health if taken internally).
This movie is simply amazing. It is almost beyond human ability. Everything in this movie fits together. Nothing is weak. Coming from a scientific background, I was especially pleased to see them get the science right. This movie got it right in a way that I have NEVER seen in any other movie. And no I don't mean how big can you make a spaceship or how detailed can you make an alien. I'm not talking visually realistic, but thoughtfully. Obviously they had some real brains behind this. The science works on many levels. Great science movies make things that are unprecedented logical and plausible. I loved the process whereby they received and decrypted the alien signal. The structure itself was magnificent. Such beautiful geometry and elegance. I've never seen a more beautiful structure contrived in any other movie. One almost thinks that if we were to build an intergalactic transport, this is what it would look like, and all we'd have to do is write the special effects artists for their blueprints. The images of space travel are awe-inspiring. They made me yearn to be there. They are not cheap. Watching them is an almost transcendental experience. The introduction of Mr. Hadden is brilliant. The movie was smart and knew that it could not just discredit Jodie's experience, it had to discredit the whole affair, including the source of the signal. Although I do have some questions about the movie's hypothesis that Hadden was behind the whole affair. If they had satellites from around the world tracking the signal, I doubt one earth-bound satellite controlled by Hadden could fool all of them. Also no doubt the brilliant sparking and glowing that came from within the structure provided some measure of proof as to its efficacy. I loved the way this movie touched upon the dichotomy between science and the unknown. I am a scientist. Thus I have been trained to use logic and evidence when examining issues. However, I am not so naive as to believe that science can currently explain everything. There are some things that science can not YET explain, but someday I believe it will. Afterall, science is simply the sum of our experiences with our environment (with some as of yet unproven theory in there). However I do not like the lumping together of what science cannot yet explain and religion. Perhaps someday science will reach the same conclusions as religion (doubtful I think). But there's a huge leap between what we currently know and what some religions postulate. And I for one am not willing to make that jump. At least science starts with experience or logic and extrapolates forward to theory. I think religion does the opposite. Sorry I've sidetracked from the review. But this is one of the most interesting issues the movie invokes for me. And I've only scratched the surface here. This movie is first-class in every way.