It was unusual...

Rating: Null/10 (3 February 2002)

My summary (above) details the most positive thing I have to say about the adaptation of Carl Sagan's book.
Every time someone complains about the treatment of the religious right wing in the movie, someone has to answer, "Well, that's how it would really happen."
Yes, well, I suppose that's how it might be if Godzilla really ransacked New York City, too. And that's how it would be if a superintelligent shade of the color blue stopped by for tea (a nod to a less pretentious work of science fiction). My point is, we're talking about astronomically improbable "what-ifs". If it were written in fire in the sky that someone was wrong about something, that person or those people might react a little strangely. What a comfort to know that none of this is likely to ever happen.
All the religious people in the film are either a) basically versions of Jodie Foster's character who say "I believe in God" or b) madmen. If these people really believed in absolute truths, they wouldn't feel threatened by the "machine" because they would be convinced it wouldn't work, anyway. It's not a life and death issue.
If you think science always gets the shaft in the science versus religion feud, you might like this movie. If you don't want to sit through anti-religious propaganda thinly veiled as a Close Encounters knock-off, rent something else.