Despite all the talented people involved, 'Contagion' turned out to be a boring mess.

There is nothing remotely impressive about the plot. The characters are incredibly cliché, boring and flat. You have a few responsible but powerless scientists, some selfish dumb-asses that will mess everything up, a worrying father with an annoying teen-aged child, etc. In other words, all the typical people that you can find in any similar movies. Then they are put into situations ranging from family affairs to political conspiracies, which are all painfully predictable and more cliché than the characters themselves. Even when there are some more intriguing plot lines, they will often be abruptly ended in the most disappointing and anticlimactic manners. Consequently, the whole movie feels like just a long list of possible scenarios, not a meaningful and complete story. Furthermore, it's not even merely entertaining since most of the controversial things are not shown but awkwardly told through dialogues, something you would only expect from cheap TV movies, not from a movie with 5 Oscar winners and a bunch of other A-list stars.

The directing is even more disappointing. I guess the director, Steven Soderbergh, was trying to make this look more realistic, like a documentary, but the result is an awkward-looking film with static and prolonged shots that sometimes feel like a long corporate advertisement.

The acting, on the other hand, is not too bad. Most of the cast deliver, despite being given very little room. The only complain I have regards this aspect is about Jude Law since his performance seems way over the top compared to the rest.

'Contagion' is perhaps somewhat successful at portraying a more realistic image of a world-wide disaster, but that doesn't make it a successful or interesting movie. Instead, it's just really disjointed and pointless, almost feels like a bunch of clichés from many previous disaster movies crammed together.