An Agnostic Viewpoint

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2005)

This movie is well structured, visually effective and extremely well cast, Jodie Foster captures her characters drive and enthusiasm brilliantly. I have seen this movie numerous times and never tire of its entertaining qualities.
OK, so the film is probably not as clever as it thinks it is, but it is certainly not shallow or predictable (as suggested in many comments posted here) and YES it is thought provoking (otherwise why have so many people who claim that it isn't, got so much to say about it.) I do however agree that the ending is contrived, it deliberately withholds vital information (18 Hours of Static) to show that Jodie Foster has learnt to have 'Faith', this was unnecessary.
Having read many of the reviews here on IMDb the theme of the reviews seems to revolve far too much around the religious undertones and the battle between faith and science too often. Yes, this would seem to be highly relevant, as it is a strong theme throughout the movie, however this alone is probably not a good enough reason to either love or hate this film. For a start most of the arguments are flawed and some are comically inaccurate, (example 1 - Jodie Foster says she can't believe in god, as there is no data to either support of disprove such a belief, Palmer then asks her to prove she loved her Dad.) Now, i ask you, is belief an emotion? No. So how does this comparison have any rational argument against her failure to believe in God? (example 2 - Jodie Foster says that if the message was religious, then it should have taken the form of a burning bush, or a big booming voice from the sky, and Palmer states that that's exactly what it was.) So, if a radio signal received from outside our atmosphere, can be interpreted as 'a religious message' does this mean every phone user hears these 'religious messages' all the time? After all these are radio signals that are satellite relayed around the world from outside our atmosphere. Surely, there are better arguments that could have been used.
Anyway, all that aside i really enjoyed this film, simply for its entertainment value and its more realistic approach to an alien civilisation and interaction with other lifeforms in the universe.
I give it 9/10, even if it is flawed.