Review of Contagion (2011) by Jeff W — 29 Dec 2013

Contagion is a Movie based on the 1995 film Outbreak. One pretty much knows the whole plot from watching the trailer. A bunch of people get sick, the disease is spreading and no one knows how to stop it. Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) walks around sad cause his hooker of a wife, Gweneth Paltrow, is one of the first to die from the disease. She gave the virus to their son, and some dude she banged in a Chicago hotel while on an airline layover. The Virus spreads around the world from there and everyone goes into panic. The movie has a good fast pace to the story at first but eventually just gets messy because they are trying to focus on too many characters. At the end it seems like a lot of shitty small stories put together, none of the individual characters have any real depth except for Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting). One character in particular, is a scientist from the WHO whom is held hostage in exchange for drugs. This story does not really fit in with any of the others and is not developed as much as it could have been and therefore should have just been left out. Morpheus is in the film to show that government agencies are not all evil and the struggle they go through to balance morality vs keeping order. This plot is also underdeveloped; the writers should have picked a story line and stuck with it instead of trying to cram as many kind-of-famous actors into one movie as possible. Kate Winslet has huge eyebrows. In the end this movie is kind of like a strip club: It's not too bad while you're watching but in the end you feel like you wasted money and you really want to wash your hands.

As I wrote above, the writers should have just picked one or two storylines and stuck with them. The story line that would have made the most sense would be Jason Bourne vs Predator. Matt Damon's (Good Will Hunting) character is boring and annoying. He should assume his role as Jason Bourne for this movie and fight a Predator who's blood is the only vaccine from the space virus spreading around the world. Morpheus would be working on trying to clone a Predator in the secret lab but needs Jason Borne to capture the Predator alive in order for this to work. The Predator and Jason Bourne would fight in several different cites and there are tons of explosions and innocent by standers killed, Jason Bourne also has to fight Mobs of people in the chaotic world torn apart by the spreading virus. Eventually Jason is able to capture the predator and get him back to the lab. Morpheus initiates the cloning process but something goes wrong and the Predator is awoken and escapes, killing Morpheus in the process. A wounded Jason Bourne chases after the Predator. The ending is realizing that there are hundreds of predator clones in the making with no one watching the lab, which sets up the sequel.

Contagion 4/10.

Contagion with Predators 10/10.