"Contagion" fails on two points, which are utterly important ones.
First: It has absolutely no point at all.
If you break the story down it is "a global epidemic breaks out, a cure is found, the epidemic is over". Now i'm not even remotely competent in writing, but my guess is, if you would show something like this to your teacher, he'll send you home and say "do this again". There is no climax, no surprising plot turn.
Second: There are way to many protagonists.
The only one that really interested me was the Kate Winslet plot, but she dies fast. The Fishbourne plot could have had potential, but doesn't get enough time. The Damon plot was just bad and the Cotillard plot nonexistent. The whole thing frays out like an old t-shirt.
We could have had a film that focuses on the global epidemic and the strife of an high ranking government official, the global epidemic and a father-daughter relationship or the global epidemic and the fight against it from a low ranking official at the front-line. All of that could have potential to make a decent film out of it, but instead it touches all of these and leaves you clueless as to what this whole thing was about.
First: It has absolutely no point at all.
If you break the story down it is "a global epidemic breaks out, a cure is found, the epidemic is over". Now i'm not even remotely competent in writing, but my guess is, if you would show something like this to your teacher, he'll send you home and say "do this again". There is no climax, no surprising plot turn.
Second: There are way to many protagonists.
The only one that really interested me was the Kate Winslet plot, but she dies fast. The Fishbourne plot could have had potential, but doesn't get enough time. The Damon plot was just bad and the Cotillard plot nonexistent. The whole thing frays out like an old t-shirt.
We could have had a film that focuses on the global epidemic and the strife of an high ranking government official, the global epidemic and a father-daughter relationship or the global epidemic and the fight against it from a low ranking official at the front-line. All of that could have potential to make a decent film out of it, but instead it touches all of these and leaves you clueless as to what this whole thing was about.