How to reason religion for the '90s

Rating: 6/10 (25 November 1998)

Let's start by saying, I enjoyed Contact and although I will be criticizing the movie here my overall impression remains a fairly good one.
The movie begins very well introducing the characters, for the most part, completely. The first moment at which maybe I stepped slightly back from the film was that when Palmer was introduced. It seemed that his character was intended to be some sort of 'all knowing' advisor and he is sustained in this way throughout the film.
The build-up and release of suspense to and during the first detection of the signal is excellent and I was preparing myself for a very thought provoking movie to continue the almost flawless beginning. Unfortunately at this point I was somewhat disappointed. Suddenly a character (Hadden) is introduced who seems like he's been plucked straight out of a James Bond movie. From this point onwards the movie becomes less believable.
Increasingly throughout I felt that Ellie's relationship with Palmer was implausible and that their two completely conflicting backgrounds could have been better argued. I don't believe that Jody Foster's character was intended to be as weak hearted as she acted.
The middle of the movie contains your usual combination of 'step back and see what the rest of the world is doing' scenes and the somewhat loose development of Ellie and Palmers relationship. This leads to the second focus point - the construction and use of the machine.
The end of Ellies journey, I feel, although far better than the kind of 'tentacled alien monster' story which it could have turned into, answered too many questions. The special effects on the other hand were fantastic.
The religious / spiritual untertones in the film came to their conclusion in the final few minutes when Ellie states that she has experienced something which has changed her forever, but which she can't prove (I forget the exact quote). This makes a perfect analogy with Palmers similar statement earlier on in the movie when he is explaining why he preaches hence my summary 'how to reason religion for the 90s'. I felt the argument used all the time in religion / science debates 'Science can't proove everything so this makes religion more plausible' being reiterated when the movie could have taken a new and unique perspective.
A few quite severe plot flaws added to my disbelief towards the end of the movie also. For example - How would Hadden ever have created the plans for creating a machine like the one shown genius or not?
Summarising, I thought that the movie constructed in the first third, far more potential for itself than it fulfilled, and rather than dealing with the question it asked, it avoided it. Combined with a few unbelievable plot elements this closed up much potential for further speculation.