Many may argue that it doesn't matter that the trailer gave away so much of the film, that many movies are predictable and that what's important is how well the subject matter is executed. After all, when you watch a movie a second - or third, or whatever - time, you already know what's going to happen. You derive enjoyment from the execution of that story.

And those arguments would be correct, but they don't change my point of view about Contact. Admittedly, I did like the film more the second time around, probably because I didn't have the same "that's all there is to it?" reaction from the first screening. Nonetheless, it still didn't do much for me.

The greatest fault of this film revolves around its extremely extended running time. How they took two and a half hours to develop what the trailer neatly told in two and a half minutes is beyond me. Contact moves at an extremely slow pace and it really has trouble developing any kind of momentum. Had this film been half an hour shorter, it would have moved along at a much crisper pace and it would have been more interesting. As it is, it simply dawdles too much and makes the audience wait much too long to get to its point.

Some would argue that I'm just an impatient MTV-weaned Mongoloid with no attention span and that the beauty of the film comes from its slow exposition and the way it develops its intellectual ideas. Well, they may be right about the Mongoloid thing, but I take exception at the concept that Contact possesses any great thinking or terrific philosophical ideas. The filmmakers clearly thought they were doing some sort of exploration of the nature of beliefs, religious or otherwise - Zemeckis actually refers to the film as a "metaphor for belief" during his audio commentary - but in the end, the film amounts to little more than dime store philosophy.

Whereas the filmmakers wanted to send a message that proposes that science and religion aren't mutually exclusive, I took a different notion away from the film. Throughout the entire film, Ellie is a person who unwaveringly requires proof. She's not one to take any leaps of faith based on unconfirmed beliefs. However, by the end, she has to defend herself from accusations that she never actually went on the space voyage depicted and she asserts she knows it happens because she believes it happened, although she can offer no proof.

If the film had genuinely ended this way, with neither the audience nor Ellie really knowing if the space travel had actually happened, the film would have been much better off. Unfortunately, the movie didn't stop with that. One scene near the end shows a couple of government muckity-mucks played by Angela Bassett and James Woods as they discuss some information in a "secret report". It seems that although Ellie's camera didn't film anything during her alleged trip - which lasted only seconds "Earth time" - the tape showed 18 hours of nothing.

The filmmakers seem to believe that this is nothing more than a little bit of intrigue, that the essential question of "did she or didn't she" remains unanswered, but I don't see it that way. The fact her camera ran for 18 hours, despite the appearance that it should have only been on for a few seconds at most, says to me that she definitely did go. I think that Zemeckis may have wanted to leave things vague but that he chickened out. He may not have wanted to leave audiences with the thought that their heroine was a crackpot who hallucinated the whole thing. Without explicitly spelling it out, he seemed to want to make sure that the viewer knows it did happen.

Anyone who hopes that the three - count 'em! three! – audio commentaries will shed some light on this and other issues will be pretty disappointed. Yes, the ending is discussed, but not in any kind of illuminating way. Everybody seems to think it's very vague and they don't seem to feel that it leads the audience to think one way or the other. Obviously, I disagree; whether they intended it to do this, I feel the ending clearly leads the viewer to believe that Ellie made the trip.

While I clearly am not a huge fan of Contact, I will acknowledge that despite it's bloated length, it does muster up some interest at times. As with Forrest Gump, Zemeckis can falter but he's simply too talented a filmmaker to truly fall. Probably the most effective aspect of this film revolves around its use of media to tell the story. Zemeckis spends a great deal of time focussing on the TV as a part of society. Many events are depicted through TV reports that are simply filmed right off of a TV screen.

This method is not new for him - he used TV and radio as active participants way back during his first film, I Wanna Hold Your Hand - but it probably works more effectively here than previously. The use of everyday media to tell the story adds a tremendous degree of realism to the picture. If such an event actually happened, clearly most of us would experience it through TV news, so the integration of that media into the story greatly helps us suspend disbelief.

All of this leave Contact as an interesting experience but not one that succeeds on a consistent basis. It boasts a great cast, an interesting premise and fine production values, but it just never builds the momentum – whether dramatic or intellectual – that it needs.

Contact appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Across the board, I felt satisfied with this presentation.

Sharpness looked very good. Only the slightest hint of softness ever appeared, as the vast majority of the film presented solid clarity and definition. I noticed no examples of jagged edges or shimmering, and edge enhancement was absent. Source flaws also failed to appear. Various shots showed expected levels of grain and no problems like specks or marks materialized.

Colors looked strong. The movie went with a lively palette that always seemed concise and well-developed. Blacks were dark and dense, and most low-light shots appeared fine. However, some shadows were a little too thick; these didn’t occur frequently, but they caused a few slightly unappealing shots. Even with those instances, however, I thought the movie looked good enough for an “A-“.

No problems came with the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack of Contact. Though not a constantly active mix, the audio came to life well when necessary. Actually, the flick started with a bang, as the initial journey through the galaxy created an intricate mix of source recordings.

From there, the scenes with the Vegan transmission and the spacecraft fared the best. These used all five channels to create a vivid, involving setting. Elements were appropriately localized and meshed together well to form a solid impression.

Audio quality seemed very good. Some looped lines distracted, but speech was always concise and natural. Music seemed bright and dynamic, and effects worked well. They showed nice highs and deep lows. The louder scenes packed a serious impact that made them quite impressive. This was a terrific mix that merited an “A-“.

How did the picture and sound of this Blu-Ray compare with those of the original DVD? The lossless TrueHD track added a little kick but wasn’t a tremendous improvement. On the other hand, the Blu-ray visuals looked much better. Contact came out in DVD’s infancy; it actually has held up reasonably well, but the Blu-ray was tighter, cleaner and better defined across the board. It offered a definite upgrade.

Expect all the same extras from the DVD to show up here. We start with three separate audio commentaries. For the first, we hear from director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steve Starkey. Both men sit together for this running, screen-specific piece. They discuss the opening shot and other visual effects, cast and performances, camerawork and cinematographic issues, music and audio, story and the adaptation of the original novel, set design and locations, and a variety of additional issues.

Despite the breadth of the information covered, this never becomes a particularly great commentary. It tends to move a little slowly, and we find too much dead air. Still, it does get into a good array of topics, so as long as you prepare yourself for some dead spots, it merits a listen.

For the second track, we hear from actor Jodie Foster. She offers her own running, screen-specific discussion. Foster goes over character and performance issues, themes and story, working with Zemeckis and dealing with technical elements, her co-stars, locations and other production topics.

While Foster never turns this into a captivating piece, she does okay for the most part. She comes across as nicely introspective and thoughtful, though I must admit she can frustrate at times. Foster doesn’t dig too deeply into her performance choices; she stays with more superficial acting notes. I’d like to hear more about why she did what she did and less about bumps and bruises. Still, we get a reasonable amount of good information here despite a moderate amount of dead air.

Finally, we get a track with senior visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston and visual effects supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum. Both sit together for their running, screen-specific chat. To the surprise of no one, they primarily discuss the various visual effects that appear in the film. We learn many details of these as well as some related production subjects.

Surprisingly, I found the commentary from effects guys Ralston and Rosenbaum to be the most interesting of the bunch. They were the wittiest and most engaging of the participants. Unfortunately, if you listen to these tracks in the natural order, this one comes last, which means that you'll already know much of the material they tell you. Yes, three tracks of commentary means a very high level of redundancy. Many facts are repeated on each track; for example, each participant tells us that Jenna Malone, the actress who plays young Ellie, has brown eyes that needed to be artificially colored to match those of Foster. This is interesting to know, but not to hear three times. Anyway, taken on its own, the effects commentary proves useful.

It's a good thing that Ralston and Rosenbaum were engaging, because we hear a lot more from them in the other supplements. Four similar segments appear that comprise 40 minutes, 51 seconds of footage and depict various aspects of the special effects. We get The Making of the Opening Shot (20:02), The Making of the NASA Machine Destruction (5:52), The Making of the Harrier Landing (8:55), and High Speed Compositing Reel (6:08).

These shows us scenes in varying degrees of completion and come accompanied by narration from Ralston and Rosenbaum. They remain entertaining, but this section is somewhat dry. If you’re interested in effects, though, these offer solid tutorials.

Information about computer animated concepts shows up in the next three clips. These provide raw footage along with narration, this time from 3-D computer graphic artist Tim Wilcox. We find Machine Fly-By (1:32), Hadden’s Plane (0:26) and NASA Control Room (0:23). As with the prior components, these can be dry, but they offer good information.

In addition to two trailers, we get a 5.1 music-only track. This presents Alan Silvestri’s score in all its isolated glory. This is standard Dolby Digital 5.1, not TrueHD, but it’s still a nice bonus.

Though it doesn’t always succeed, Contact provides an above-average piece of science fiction. It manages something more thought provoking than usual and works fairly well, though it remains too darned long. The Blu-rau presents excellent picture and audio and some good extras. While not one of my favorite films, this Blu-ray does it justice and acts as a nice upgrade from the 12-year-old DVD.

To rate this film visit the original review of CONTACT