Arrival (2016)

• Year: 2016
• Released: 11 Nov 2016
• Country: United States, Canada
• Adwords: Won 1 Oscar. 70 wins & 269 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arrival
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/arrival
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 2160p
• Language: English, Russian, Mandarin
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
• Runtime: 116 min
• Writer: Eric Heisserer, Ted Chiang
• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
• Keywords: alien, time travel, scientist, military, female protagonist,

	7.9/10
	81/100

Arrival Storyline

In the clear skies of Montana, during an unprecedented worldwide incident of simultaneous first contact with extraterrestrial life forms, an ominous alien pod, out of twelve in total, comes to a standstill, hovering only a few feet over the green prairies. Inevitably, as panic ensues, Colonel G.T. Weber recruits a team of various experts, including the esteemed linguistics and dialectology, Professor Dr Louise Banks, and the theoretical physicist, Dr Ian Donnelly, burdening them with the impossible task to decipher a coded conversation with the intergalactic visitors. But, when all attempts to communicate prove fruitless, a practical, yet very important question will arise: does humanity have enough vocabulary to understand the aliens’ answer before a new global war sparks?

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Arrival Movie Reviews

Excellent, intelligent, just a terrific film.

This is a very, very well made film, which is thought provoking, measured, engaging, and thoroughly well made.

There is nothing brash, or heavy handed about it, the story is superbly told, with well grounded characters. The story is of course sci fi, and hugely creative, but it’s never silly, it is incredibly intelligent.

Awesome special effects, I loved the design of the alien race, and their language, quite incredible.

A story of hope, which I loved. 9/10

Good…but also very slow and NOT the sort of film that pleases the masses.

When you look at the reviews for “Arrival” on IMDB, you might notice that there is a huge disparity among them. Many hate it, many love it…more so than most films. The reason, I think, is because this sci-fi film is very cerebral….and not a bit like “Star Wars” and more traditional science fiction.

In this story, 12 enormous space craft suddenly appear all over the world. Not surprisingly, folks are scared and people want answers. Soon, a representative from the military shows up and requests that Dr. Banks (Amy Adams) join with a team of researchers in the American west….as they want her with her impressive linguistic skills to try to communicate with the vessel and the creatures within…if there are any. What follows is a long, slow and mend-bending film…one that is interesting and appears very realistic…but also is cerebral.

The acting, special effects and all were very nice. I have no complaints about that at all. As for the story, I generally enjoyed it but felt that the whole concept of time being cyclical a bit strange….not bad, just odd. Overall, a good film but one that doubtless leaves many confused and bored.

A different sci-fi film, and a good, but divisive, one

Despite being critically acclaimed, ‘Arrival’ is another one of those films that is praised to the heavens with critics but has wildly divided audiences judging from the nature of both the positivity and negativity. Though it has to be said that the positive reviewers have been far more mature than the negative ones, many of which to me being disgustingly condescending.

‘Arrival’ is a very different sci-fi film, and one can definitely see why people will love it and be moved by it as well as seeing why people will hate it and be alienated. To me, ‘Arrival’ is not as good as reputed and is not a masterpiece, but even if it didn’t do much for me it would have gotten a 4 at least. From personal opinion there are far worse films out there that are far more deserving of 1/10, and it would be insulting to put ‘Arrival’ down there with them. Even if the film didn’t much for me, the good things would still be acknowledged and there would be real effort to be respectful of other people’s opinions regardless of agreeing or disagreeing with them rather than being insulting and inventing ridiculous and untrue conspiracy theories. Those who hated it do need to grow up and start accepting that not everybody hates this film and that those who loved it are being genuine, and no being angry at being disappointed by it is not an excuse. Coming from a younger film lover than most on this site who’s autistic and disabled but those have not gotten in the way of being understanding of people’s opinions, what’s your excuse?

Back to my thoughts on the film, ‘Arrival’ is a meditatively paced film, and is not an action filled or jam packed with constant narrative. While this may understandably alienate viewers, neither of these are necessarily bad things especially when there are great to masterpiece films that are the same. Of the four films seen of Denis Villeneuve so far, ‘Arrival’ may be my least favourite, and his most polarising, least violent and most gentle, but that is just testament to how very good ‘Prisoners’ is and how fantastic ‘Incendies’ and ‘Sicario’ are.

The criticisms are understandable and am in agreement with some. It does drag in the middle act, softening and slacking too much. It does get confusing in the later stages, where things can get ridiculous and predictable.

Forest Whittaker and particularly Michael Stuhlbarg’s characters are underutilised and underwritten with both having very little to do, the two do make the most of their roles one has to give them that.

However, ‘Arrival’ does look wonderful. This is particularly true in Bradford Young’s cinematography, being fluid and its tactile quality is of sheer beauty. It’s beautifully and atmospherically designed and lit, the special effects have grand spectacle and the editing is some of the best of its year.

Johann Johannsson’s music score is another standout, it has a haunting creepiness and has a heart-pulsating and emotional beat. It not only adds a huge amount to the film, it also enhances it. Denis Villeneuve’s direction is his most subtle and least hard-hitting, which is not only a good thing but the right thing, the approach he gave to ‘Prisoners’ and ‘Sicario’ would have ruined an atmosphere that’s the complete opposite.

In terms of how it’s written, ‘Arrival’ is not perfect but it has a movingly raw emotion, thoughtfulness, subtly suspenseful mystery and gives a compelling realism to its character especially the protagonist. Likewise the story (yes there is one), with a poignant emotion and a clever and powerful, if perhaps not the most logical, twist.

The acting is one of ‘Arrival’s’ best assets, all round it’s very good even if some characters are better realised than others. Amy Adams in particular is astounding, she has rarely been more poignant. Jeremy Renner also underplays effortlessly.

All in all, divisive film but count me as one of the people who liked it but in an appreciation way than a loved it way. 7/10 Bethany Cox