Is It Weird That I Find This Kinda Laughable?

Rating: 4/10 (18 September 2019)

It is very obvious that Contact is intended to be profound. It's long, it's plodding, and it's a little bit trippy, to be honest. But does it succeed in it's narrative? I'd say no.
We begin making contact with aliens when they send back a broadcast of Hitler at a Nazi rally. Yuck! Why this isn't taken as a warning sign is beyond me, but I guess the aliens haven't brushed up on Earth history. Oh well. What ensues is a rather silly "religion bad, science good" narrative that basically sets the aliens up as some kind of deity. See the logical inconsistency? It's kinda funny, in a depressing sort of way. The aliens string humanity along until we build a machine to allow us to meet them, but the evil, backwards religious people blow it sky high. But don't worry! We had a back up. The main character meets the magical aliens on a magical beach, and no one believes her. The end!
The film feels very self-important, and obviously takes itself WAY too seriously. The leads are bland and uninteresting, and the supporting cast of characters gets tiresome quickly. The narrative is vapid and lackadaisical, and it's too long.
Contact may not be the worst sci-fi film, but it's certainly a far cry from being the best.