Arrival review
Arrival comes to us courtesy of French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who’s best known for movies like Sicario and Prisoners, and is currently the guy behind the new Blade Runner sequel coming out next year. Arrival is based off of Ted Chiang’s short story Story of Your Life and follows the story of twelve alien spacecraft appearing on Earth through the eyes of Amy Adam’s character Louise Banks, a Linguist called in by the military to attempt to find a way to communicate with the aliens before another world super-power screws something up. That’s about all of the plot I want to explain here, since not only are most of the specific details of Arrival part of the fun of watching it, but there’s also a HUGE plot twist at the beginning of the final act that I don’t even want to give a hint of spoiling.
The biggest flaw I can find in Arrival is that I can certainly see the big twist at the end putting a lot of people off. It kinda comes out of nowhere, doesn’t seem to automatically gel with the themes the movie’s already set up, and overall basically ends up redefining how you look at the movie. I personally feel that the twist works, but if it straight up doesn’t for any of you I can totally understand. Other then that, there isn’t really anything I can say that’s done badly in this movie! Denis Villeneuve has already proven he’s somewhere on the same caliber as Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan; filmmakers that no matter what they make, usually have a very good grasp on the technicals of filmmaking. It’s just a really well done movie! Great cinematography, great editing, great direction, great performances; just a smoothly running movie overall. Heck, something that stood out to me that almost never sticks out to me in movies was how realistic the sound design and sound editing was. It’s most noticeable in the flashbacks, where the sound will mostly cut out save for specific lines of dialogue and noises that the character is supposed to be remembering. It’s a very minor detail most mainstream directors wouldn’t remember, but it’s the little details like this that add so much to how immersed you can get in a movie.
Arrival mostly sticks out to me for just how intelligent it is about its subject matter. It’s a movie all about communication and language and how it connects people, and it treats its audience as intelligent adults. It’s rare to see a movie nowadays that simply doesn’t care if it alienates anyone, and too be fair I’d say it comes dangerously close to doing exactly that with how it casts certain people in certain lights. But again, not quite, since it’s a smart enough movie to know not to outright villainize anyone. All the characters are given proper motivations and background to ensure that though we may not agree (or are supposed to agree) with what certain characters do, we’re definitely able to understand why. In other words, Arrival knows that to truly be a movie about communication, it needs every voice to be heard.
Honestly there’s not too much I have to say here without spoiling the really good stuff. Everything else should just be experienced for yourself. Arrival is probably one of the best Sci-fi movies to come out in the past decade, easily my favorite movie of the year so far, and comes really highly recommended from me. After the horrible election year America’s experienced and how uncertain everything’s looking for the future, I can’t think of better timing for a movie that encourages understanding and communication above all else. So do yourself a favor and go check this one out while it’s in theaters.
The Media Fire gives this movie 9.6/10
