Contagion (2011)

Just got back from Contagion, and among other things it kinda scared me. I don't mean in the way of some monster jumping around a corner with a roar, either. You never really think about the umpteen zillion actions taken around the world could ultimately have an effect on you, sitting in the middle of suburbia in the heartland of a modern country.

And the pisser is even if you do think about it, eventually it'll fade from memory, and you'll continue on even when something is happening.

As for the movie content itself, I might have grumped a little at the ticket price, but that would've been the case even with the Best. Movie. Ever. (which this was, admittedly, not), but overall I got my money's worth. That they didn't go into graphic details other than the flap of scalp when autopsying Beth was a definite bonus, I thought, with the movie going for psychological scares instead of pure gross-out value.

One last thought: That Alan guy can eat a dick. I wouldn't have minded more of the movie to see his comeuppance, but that wasn't the focus of the film, so I'm not really going to fault them for not following the after-effects. (On the other hand, more scenes of him would show the Special Effects Failure that were Alan's dodgy teeth. )

edited 3rd Oct '11 1:40:57 PM by Nohbody

I was hoping someone would start a thread on this!

I though it was really good. I didn't actually find it frightening (and I scare incredibly easily when it comes to actual horror/thriller movies) but maybe that's because I did my undergrad in molecular biology and was too busy being interested in the virus and how they portrayed the search for a cure to be scared. Unusually for a movie, they did a very good job of portraying virus and the research and containment procedures and such accurately, in my view (except that they took far to long to have people start wearing N95 masks - the ones with two knobs on the sides).

The characterization was very good and they did an excellent job showing the dilemmas of the people at the CDC, both professional (restrict work to CL 4 labs or not) and personal (warn your family when things are about to go nuts, or not). And then the moral dilemmas when it came to the kidnapping...their decision was horrible, but if you give in you're just going to cause a a spate of kidnappings, which won't improve anything.

I was a little surprised no one had started a thread already, myself, given the All-Star Cast.

Anyway, when I was looking for info on the movie before seeing it, I read an article on fandango.com about how CDC personnel were pretty positive about accuracy, with a few issues like the self-injection (though they at least didn't give the impression it was something officially endorsed) and the rate of spread given MEV-1s deadliness. The overall assessment was "plausible, if not perhaps likely".

Tangentially, it was nice to see a movie with the government (or parts thereof) not being the "bad guy" of the piece, and the conspiracy being only in the head of one person and the people that read and agree with his blog (I wouldn't have minded some point made about those 12M unique views not all being in agreement with him; I know my regular reading doesn't include only people with whom I'm in agreement). Frequently it's the government that's the problem, and the Plucky Hero(tm) is the one fighting it to try to solve the issue.

It has Matt Damon. It's not Oceans series. I'm watching this.

Haven't seen it. When I first saw the trailers I was hopeing for a zombie move. But that can be the Sequel: At first Everybody Dies, now everyone UNLIVES!

Yeah, me too. Still looks interesting, though.

My mother wants me to take her to see this, I can't say i'm interested but. The whole super virus plot line has been done a lot of late.