Good story muddled by side issues.

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2003)

This movie is generally good entertainment but it bogs down with too many side issues that detract from the main story. I would have preferred a pure scientific approach: Scientist discovers sounds from outer space contain a hidden message, she decodes the message and builds a transporter from blueprints provided by the aliens, then travels to meet them. If the movie had kept to that central premise, it would have been more entertaining.
But it gets bogged down with issues of religion and politics, and issues of Jodie Foster, the scientist and main character, relating to men in her life. A little bit of personal drama is necessary in science fiction, but in "Contact", the writers got carried away with it. Jodie travels through space and time, to what, meet her father and reconcile childhood issues? C'mon, give me a break. And why was it important to cast religious figures in such a negative, oppressive way? What did that have to do with the story being told?
I liked the movie but it could have been a whole lot better.