Arrival Review!

Alright! So recently I saw the 2016 film Arrival. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, this is "A movie about aliens for people who don't like movies about aliens," in the words of Sam Lansky.


And, yeah. That's an accurate description. There's not a lot of sci-fi action or big set pieces for the trailers. It's more of a slow, philosophical, semi-realistic attempt at what would happen if aliens made contact. And because it's really good, it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, among others. Not Best Actress, though. For some reason.

I really like the film. I had a few issues with it, but those go into a bigger "Spoiler" territory, so I'll let that be, since not many people have seen the film.

The first commendation I have for the film is the cinematography and the visuals. Arrival is such a well made film. Excellent production design. While the aliens are relatively peaceful aliens, some of the shots are so wide and epic in their impressiveness that it ogles the mind. Especially when a wide shot of the cool alien ships is accompanied by the awesome score (BWAAAAAH).

Look at this. This is dope.

And another snub for the Oscars on the score. Because it used a pre-existing score, the Academy denied it Best Original Score status. Very sad.

And the acting in this thing is top-notch. Amy Adams does a very good job playing Dr. Louise Banks, and Hawkeye's in here too, playing a funny mathematician named Ian, an obvious homage to Jurassic Park.

But other than the awe inspiring visuals, acting, and production design, was Arrival a good movie?

Yes.

The story is clever and seemingly well thought out. The plot is a cool concept executed well. A good comparison would be Interstellar, both in their approaches to the handling of the sci-fi genre, tone, and visuals.

I also have to commend the film for it's use of language. Both as a plot device, which was well done, and the F-Bomb that was dropped. Most movies build up their F-Bomb, so having one so casually dropped early in the film was a good subversion. But I get it. No one wants to see a dramatic PG Science Fiction movie. PG is for kids, and Arrival is not a kid's movie (Not because of anything in the film, they just probably wouldn't enjoy it)

I thought Arrival was, all things accounted for, a good film. I wasn't a big fan of the ending, though. For reasons I'll get into later.

Overall, I give Arrival a 10/10. "Working on a visual level, emotionally touching, and an all around interesting film to watch, Arrival proves you don't need big action pieces to be exciting."


So, for some spoiler talk, let's do that.



I counted about one explosion in the whole movie. While I do wish that the aliens had attacked the humans, or that one of the ships had been destroyed, just for the visual appeal, the story works completely fine without needless action pieces.

I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. After such a grounded and realistic film, I thought that the ending would be super cool and mind blowing, like the Gift from the Twilight Zone. In that episode, an alien lands on Earth bringing a formula for a cure to cancer, only for superstitious townspeople to kill him and blow up the formula.

I was expecting something along those lines. But instead it was, "Being able to understand the circle allows you to see into the future, and your alien bros will need a lift in 3000 years, could you help a brother out?" So that was weird. I was hoping that the destructive nature of humankind would prevail, which is kind of weird to hope for, but I was hoping that it would have a lot more depth than the ending.

Throughout the film, there are flashbacks of Amy Adams raising a child who dies of cancer. Towards the end of the film, however, you learn that those were actually flash forwards in time, and that all that stuff happened after the aliens left Earth. It was a very interesting way to end the film, like a happy ending and a sad one at the same time.


On one hand, the film ends with the clichéd "Male and female lead end up together because they do." But at the same time, you already know what happens to the couple, how they get divorced, and that their child dies. It's sad and happy at the same time and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out if it's genius or stupid.

And that whole bit where Amy Adams looks into the future to talk to the Chinese dude? That was dumb. Especially after the movie was so grounded in realistic, plausible scenarios, to randomly have that kind of deus ex machina drop in out of nowhere was off putting.

Oh, and seeing as what's going on now with COVID, all the stuff with the crowd panic over peaceful aliens was... scarily believable.

And I think that Arrival also serves as an excellent "Subversion of expectations." It initally starts off as super Jurassic Park-y, to the point where Jeremy Renner's character is named Ian. A dude is recruiting experts to come help with something that shouldn't exist, spread a little light on the matter. But where Jurassic Park had lots of scary horror, where the dinosaurs eat escape and eat people, Arrival is a lot more like a think piece, a realistic portrayal of scientists rushing to figure stuff out.

But aside from those two criticisms, only one of which was an legitimate complaint, Arrival has got to be one of the best films of the 21st century. I would edit my Top 50 Movies of the 2010s to include this and the Social Network, but that sounds like a lot of work so I won't. And today is my birthday. Just a fun fact.