The end result is both quantitative and qualitative, though director Denis Villenueve had some obvious influences. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar before it, Arrival wraps you up in an atmospheric spectacle while leaving a lightyear's worth of room for interpretation. Far from straight-forward, the film mindbends and timebends with achingly gorgeous photography that frames the locations as much as the characters.
She doesn't think linearly and neither does the film. Our eyes, ears and mind, Banks is a linguist emotionally scarred by a tragedy. Contemplative is the word for this thinking man's alien invasion flick. In this PG-13-rated sci-fi drama, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is tasked with interpreting the language of the apparent alien visitors after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world. Opt for another viewing of Close Encounters instead.Ī beautifully acted and cerebral piece of sci-fi that's almost as smart as it portends to be, Arrival nonetheless captivates with a thought-provoking puzzler that brings to mind Close Encounters of the Third Kind.had Terrence Malick directed it, that is. I enjoy heady sci-fi like Ex Machina and Interstellar as recent examples, but Arrival comes up well short with the only truly clever aspects being the aliens' writing method and the title. There's a fairly nifty revelation at the very end, but it's relied upon far too heavily to have a Shyamalan effect and cannot salvage the dreary experience until then. Naturally the military gets trigger-happy solely in order to inject some form of tension which is utterly predictable. She's a highly skilled linguist recruited by the military to communicate with these aliens, but none of her studying makes any difference as her only breakthroughs occur through memory flashes interacting with her daughter. Only Jeremy Renner shows any signs of life, everyone else is sleepwalking including Amy Adams who is blander than Top 40 radio. Their ships look stupid, the aliens themselves look stupider, and there's generally a lack of awe at this event. Big disappointment considering the nominations, which makes it one of the most overrated movies of 2016. If our first contact with an alien race turns out to be as boring as this movie, then I hope it doesn't happen.