Arrival

2016 "Why are they here?"
7.9| 1h56m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 11 November 2016 Released
Producted By: 21 Laps Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.arrivalmovie.com/
Synopsis

Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.

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Reviews

Animenter There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
timusathem28 Arrival is a beautifully layered approach to the typical sci-fi theme. Much like Adams' character Dr.Banks chiding the scientific Donelly on starting with the basics of communication, the movie seems to be lecturing the genre about the inordinate focus on how aliens look, what their materials are etc and not asking the more basic questions. It conveniently allows the plot to avoid answering those questions, and it works as the viewer is able to suspend judgement on those points. But in focusing on the broader narratives it's let down by the more simple storytelling detail, such as the initial scenes of Whitaker meeting Adams, and the incredulity of Adams learning the aliens language.
Devran ikiz There are some films that tell you a story, and there are some films that impose an idea. "Arrival" enters in the list of films that share and impose an idea. Before talking about its idea, I have to say that even though "Arrival" is a science fiction drama film, it has nothing to do with classic science fiction examples. Its atmosphere is calm and very much focused on the message it shares. In my opinion "Arrival" is one of the best films of 2016 and one of the best science fiction films of all times. It brings an enormous difference to the sci-fi genre. "Arrival" chooses communication over action, and this brought the film eight Academy Awards nominations including, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Achievement in Cinematography. It won only one of them which is Best Achievement in Sound Editing. I don't know the criteria about sound editing or sound mixing but now, when I think about the soundtracks, it makes a perfect sense to me what they mean by sound editing and sound mixing. I have enjoyed the performance of Amy Adams, as a talented linguist, and even though this performance goes unrecognized by the Academy, she manages to get herself a nomination in the Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. "Arrival" is based on 1998 short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. It is directed by Denis Villeneuve, who is known to be also the director of Incendies, Prisoners and Blade Runner 2049. All these films are in the list of IMDB's top 250 films. Starting with Interstellar and continuing with "Arrival," the change in sci-fi genre has begun and in the near future we can expect more films like this.What would have happened if one day visitors from other planets would come to Earth? How would we communicate with them? Would we attack them, or would we try to talk with them? How would we understand their purpose? What if they are sharing a friendly message and big capitalist countries ignore it? Basically, this is the idea and exit point of "Arrival." One day, twelve extraterrestrial spacecrafts land in twelve locations across the earth. No one knows why they are there and what they want. So, US Army recruits a bunch of people including Louise (Amy Adams) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), trying to find out one important answer, "why they have come to earth" With different attempts, Louise and Ian manage to communicate with the seven-limbed aliens and find out why they came. They came to help humanity by sharing a language which helps perceive the future and the past for those who can master that language. Louise understands the message when she cracks the code and finds out that each twelve spacecrafts share a part of the message, and in order for the message to be perceived, each country must collaborate and share their piece of message. Eventually world unites and when the message is understood, spacecrafts disappear.After writing the story a bit detailed, I would like to share the famous idea of the film. It tells us to unite and gather around one civilization in order to go forward as one. This is of course a utopia, but it still makes you think about its benefits. Using the power of past and future, Louise manages to convince Chinese military general not to attack the aliens. With little efforts the world can unite around a language. "Arrival" shows us the probability of this. Some people criticized the film for sharing Neo-Liberal propaganda, but in my opinion, the last thing "Arrival" wants to do is propaganda. It is using an interesting subject to share a valuable message. It focuses on the importance of time, communication, language and life. It criticizes globalism which creates the biggest problems on Earth.From performances to the story, from soundtracks to camera angles, "Arrival" is a very well-made film. Due to its story, it progresses very slowly, but this is very much expected from a film like this, because it chooses communication over action. If we would learn to communicate before fighting, the world would have been a much better place. This is the most important message that "Arrival" shares.
chi_town_fed This was not the worst movie I've seen. I connected with the linguist and the aliens (to a lesser degree). They overplayed the globalism a bit for my taste especially as it applied to China's ultimate response.The lasting effect on the lead character is a tiresome, overplayed concept. The linguist did a decent job at carrying the movie and pulling me into the story. Although I like Forest Whitaker, he didn't fit this role IMHO. Something as monumental as alien contact would result in the best military leader the nation has to offer being sent to access and investigate. I don't think he pulled that role off.The alien crafts were very cool in their uniqueness as were the aliens themselves and their method of communication. I would have preferred more exposure to the aliens versus the mental travels of the professor. Reviews are rightfully all over the place (to an extent). I think the extreme (1-2 , 9-10) ratings are not representative of the movie by any fair perspective. I can see a 3 to 8 range of no bs ratings. I think it depends on your mood and expectations when you watch this film. A more relaxed mood when watching this film might generate a higher rating. A more energized mood while watching this film may make it seem like more of a disappointment as the action is fairly infrequent. To call this film a 1 or a 10 isn't practical by any stretch. If you think this is a 10, this means no other movie can top this one and can at best be equally good. If you rate it with 1 star, you are claiming no movie can be worst than this, only equally bad. I promise you. There are better films than this and worst ones.I think this film was too heavy in the cerebral arena and fails to give avid sci-fi fans enough exposure to the very unique aliens portrayed in this film. I would have preferred more glimpses of them and/or their home world versus glimpses into the mental travels of the professor.
loose_ends Arrival has an interesting premise. Aliens arrive to planet Earth in 12 different spacecrafts with a mysterious mission, and in the US (which is of course the only location that matters in this film), linguist Louise Banks is brought aboard to decipher their language. Meanwhile, Louise seems to be having increasingly intense flashbacks about her daughter who died and husband who left her.I'm not sure if the filmmakers thought linguistics were too difficult for the audience to understand, or if they didn't really understand them either, but apart from a few key moments, the process Louise goes through to learn the aliens' language is vague and opaque. We don't know exactly how she does it, but a montage later, and suddenly she can speak to them in full sentences. How did we go from concrete, observable language (e.g. walk) to being able to communicate abstract concepts (e.g. purpose)? That part is glossed over entirely. It's still an interesting concept, and the circular way in which the aliens write holds an symbolic purpose, but it's not executed as well as it could be.While all of this is going on, there are scenes showing world affairs in response to the aliens (called heptapods). The filmmakers made a decision to involve no real-world political figures in the movie, which was probably for the best, but still manages to be distracting. It's all "the president" this, "the president" that, and a fictional Chinese general now seems to be leader of the entire Eastern world. News segments come across as corny and forced, as does a fictional rightwing conspiracy theorist. Of course, it's the Eastern world that decides to wage war on the heptapods, those unenlightened brutes, and Louise alone has the power to stop them. This all provides the only context and main conflict of the movie, but it is rather dull and contrived.Then there's the "flashbacks" and romance, which are interlinked. Early on, Louise is introduced to physicist Ian Donnelly, who comes across as arrogant, and the two spar a bit. Then they clearly begin to grow on one another. It's a very cliche, albeit subdued (remember, this is a serious film!), romance plot. Ian makes a throwaway line about how language informs our experience of reality (i.e., the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis), which ends up being the key to the whole movie. There's also a key "flashback" in which Louise tells her daughter her father is a scientist. While it's all pretty vague, the circular nature of the aliens' language, combined with the fact that Louise has come to think in their language, starts to make it clear that these aren't "flashbacks." Ian is her husband, and their daughter dies; because Louise has been given the gift of the heptapods' language, she now sees time as they do, i.e., nonlinearly. Instead of being stuck at a point in time like all humans, she can now see every event in her life unfold. It's a confusing concept, and the film doesn't do much to clarify it.This all is used to solve the problem with that pesky warmongering General Shang, who gives her his phone number during one of her visions and directs her on what she can say to change his mind (which makes it even more ambiguous how time works in this movie--is having a nonlinear perception of time the same thing as being clairvoyant?). Then the heptapods leave, and Louise finally understands the gift they have given to her. Is it a gift? A thoughtful audience will have more questions than answers. Louise continues on with her life, marrying Ian and giving birth to their daughter, because "it's the journey, not the destination" (as the cliche goes). She knows Ian will leave her and her daughter, and then the daughter will die from cancer at a young age. Is it really ethical to give birth to someone who will suffer and die at a young age? As deep as it wants to be, the movie doesn't trouble itself with such questions. It's also not clear if Louise has any free will to stop it--after all, the events she sees are already happening (the nonlinear view of time negates the idea of a separate past, present, and future). Does Louise have any free will at all?Arrival is a well-made film from a technical standpoint. The cinematography and soundtrack are excellent. The plot has a lot of potential, and there are some interesting moments therein. However, in the end it doesn't add up to the sum of its parts. Its rather slow, light on detail, and the ending manages to be both predictable and confusing. The ending tries to spin Louise's "gift" as a positive, but it's hard to buy it.