Arrival (2016) Reviews

• Time. Life. Gift. You. Gift. Life. Time.

  tahseenahmed2019-01-11

  As a kid, my dad used to tell me stories at night just like any other dads out there. I grew up, got busy with life but those priceless timeless beautiful storytelling moments that I once shared, that amazed me in wonder, curiosity, imagination and desire to know more.. I know if I think hard enough I might remember some of them, but that's not the point. The point is all those stories had characters and people and objects and places and things that I could either imagine or something that I could picture and understand and visualize in my young mind. If not for those imaginable characters and people, I would have never understood those stories, the true meaning of the story, the actual story behind the story that my dad probably wanted me to understand. Arrival, for me is such a story. Aliens are just fun characters that help me understand the story so I can actually see beyond it and understand the untold story. You see, the way I understand it is that the director had to dumb it down for us and wrap this movie in a sci-fi genre and add aliens so you could relate it to something you are familiar with and hoped, really hoped that we try to understand the true purpose, the message behind all this. It simply couldn't have been portrayed better than this! This movie teaches you a lot of things, if you are ready to learn. About 'time' and how much we are bound by it, about life and death, about loving unconditionally, about believing in yourself that everything happens for a reason, and so much more..

• No CGI overkill, just some fine acting and directing

  malVV_2017-02-13

  Denis Villeneuve is without a doubt an upcoming director and I can't wait to see Blade Runner 2049. Prisoners, Sicario and now Arrival (haven't seen Enemy yet, or some of his earlier work). Denis knows how to capture the tension. It is almost the strongest point of all of his films. Minimal use of computer generated images, and main focus on story, characters, acting and thrilling scenes. Back on IMDb board, I have noticed a lot of people calling Arrival a boring movie. So many hypocrites these days. People trying to point out every possible flaw to look and sound smarter while at the same time hailing far worse movies. Calling it boring and slow while at the same time complaining no originality in Hollywood, only giant CGI laser explosions extravaganza. Go watch Independence Day. In Arrival there is no action, no explosions, just some amazing acting performances combined with good directing, editing and cinematography. There was not a single moment I felt bored.

• A flat out, stone cold, science fiction masterpiece

  ryanjmorris2016-10-11

  Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguist who teaches at a College. One day, twelve giant spacecrafts appear in random locations across the world overnight. Louise's skills make her a requirement for the U.S forces, who recruit her - and mathematician Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) - to attempt to decode and translate the language that the creatures inside the spacecrafts are using in order to prevent a global war. Alien invasion films have, frankly, been done to death. Arrival's script - penned by Eric Heisserer and adapted from Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life" - is ingenious in that it finds an entirely new angle to focus the whole thing on. Rather than start a war and depict the bloodshed and trauma of an alien invasion, Arrival focuses on the struggle to communicate with the creatures (dubbed "Heptapods"), and what the aftermath of this could lead to should it not go to plan. The whole thing is pieced together like a piece of art - the performances, dialogue, cinematography, soundtrack, screenplay, editing and direction all form one elegantly structured whole. It's a simply astonishing feat of film making. Arrival finds strength in just about everything it is comprised of. It does this to such an extent, in fact, that it's almost impossible to break it down into individual pieces. Amy Adams is superb here, giving a subdued but deeply moving performance. A lot of the film rests on her shoulders for its twists and turns to stick the landing, but she carries it without breaking a sweat. Never given any big Oscar-esque moments, Adams tells Louise's story in her softest moments and through her body language. It's an astoundingly delicate performance. Renner is also solid, and accompanies Adams nicely, even if he can't help but feel woefully overshadowed. Louise as a character is the film's most exciting element - a woman that uses her knowledge and skills to change the world in ways it has never been changed before, all of which comes down to language. When Arrival ends, you will spend hours thinking about yourself and the language you speak and use every day. The potential behind this story was astronomical, and it delivers in spades. Much like in his previous film Sicario, Villeneuve has created a masterful aesthetic in every way. The film's soundtrack, courtesy of the terrific Jóhann Jóhannsson, is a sublime array of thumping horn arrangements and softer pieces. The cinematography (by Bradford Young) is breathtaking, bringing in references and odes to other sci-fi classics (notably 2001: A Space Oddysey) but successfully acting as a perfect match to the tone of each sequence. The flashback sequences focused on Louise's young daughter look and feel like forgotten memories, while the moments inside the spacecrafts feel entirely alien. The production design is stunning, the large pitch black objects hovering over the cities feel instantly dark and foreboding, and the brief sights of the creatures we're given reveal something wholly original. In terms of technicalities and aesthetic, Arrival is a thing of beauty - a unique, visually resplendent film that you never want to take your eyes off of. But where Arrival hits perfection, though? The emotion. The power behind the story, and the direction the story takes in its tremendous final act. This is what makes Arrival such a phenomenal film. It sets up a story (an already thought-provoking and well paced one, at that), and then smoothly transforms into something much bigger than you could ever have expected it to be. Another stroke of ingeniousness is that the film doesn't do this in one movement. Rather than drop one bombshell and change its direction, Arrival slowly sets up a series of events, then puts them in motion one by one, binding everything neatly around its central character. Y'know that feeling you get when an absolutely killer plot twist lands? Arrival will give you that feeling for the entirety of its final act. It is, of course, entirely possible to work out where it is headed. I did, as a matter of fact, and it just made the whole thing feel that little bit more special. You either work it out and watch as it comes to life before your eyes, or you cluelessly dedicate your time to its finale and feel mesmerised at each and every turn. Whichever you experience, it is wonderful. Arrival is a film that feels thrilling in its own unique little way. When it ends, and you discuss it for hours (which is inevitable), you'll find yourself not focusing on the aliens. You'll be focusing on the emotional power of it all, on the human side of the story. I've deliberately left a lot out of this review, just to avoid spoiling the direction the film takes in its final act. The power behind the constant twists and turns is game changing; it proves that science fiction can be, despite what the name might imply, the most human genre to make a film about. Arrival has some stunning imagery and effects to play around with, but instead it focuses on language and conversation. It focuses on humanity and time and memory, and all that is worth fighting for on this planet. It is a breathtaking achievement, and one I already cannot wait to experience countless times again. In a year riddled with emotionless superhero films and crude comedies, Arrival is a godsend. Villeneuve has been on the verge of a masterpiece for the last few years, and he has finally landed it. Arrival is a film for the ages. Seek it out at all costs, and let it transport you across time and space only to bring you back down to Earth, evoking a feeling you may never have experienced before. This, people, this right here is why I adore cinema.

• Wow - what a surprise

  bob-the-movie-man2016-11-08

  Sometimes I can get very irritated by a trailer for giving too much away (case in point, "Room" and more recently "Passengers"). Sometimes I can get very excited by a really good teaser trailer (case in point, "10 Cloverfield Lane"). But most of the time a "ho hum" trailer typically drives the expectation of a "ho hum" film: "Jack Reacher: Never Look Back" being a good recent example. Then there is "Arrival"… Because the trailer for "Arrival" belies absolutely nothing about the depth and complexity of the film. At face value, it looks like a dubious "Close Encounters" wannabe, with a threat of movement towards the likes of "Independence Day" and "The 5th Wave". Actually what you get is a film that approaches the grandeur of "Close Encounters" but interlaces it with the intellectual depth of "Inception", the mystery of "Intersteller" and a heavy emotional jolt or two of "Up". Amy Adams ("Batman vs Superman") plays Dr Louise Banks, a language teacher at a US university facing a bunch of particularly disengaged students one morning. For good reason since world news is afoot. Twelve alien craft have positioned themselves strategically around the world, hanging a few feet from the ground in just the sort of way that bricks don't. Banks is approached by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) and offered the job of trying to communicate with the aliens: where did they come from? why are they here? Banks faces the biggest challenge of her academic career in trying to devise a strategy for communication without any foundation of knowledge on what level communication even works at for them. Assisted by Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner, "Mission Impossible IV/V", "Avengers"), a theoretical physicist, the pair try to crack the code against a deadline set by the inexorable rise of international tensions – driven by China's General Chang (Tzi Ma, "Veep"; "24"). Steven Spielberg made a rare error of judgement by adding scenes in his "Special Edition" of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" showing everyman power guy Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) entering the alien spacecraft. Some things are best left to the imagination. Here, a reprise of that mistake seems inevitable, but – perversely – seems to be pulled off with mastery and aplomb. The aliens are well rendered, and the small scale nature of the set (I'm sure I've been in similar dingy waiting rooms in UK railway stations!) is cleverly handled by the environmental conditions. But where the screenplay really kills it is in the emergence of the real power unleashed by the translation work. To say any more would deliver spoilers, which I won't do. But this is a masterly piece of science- fiction writing. The screenplay was by Eric Heisserer – someone with a limited scriptwriting CV of horror film reboots/sequels such as "Final Destination 5", "The Thing" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" – so the portents were not good, which just adds to the surprise. If I were to be critical, some of the dialogue at times is a little TOO clever for its own good and smacks of Aaron Sorkin over-exposition: the comment about "They have a word for it in Hungary" for example went right over my head. Denis Villeneuve ("Sicario") deftly directs, leaving the pace of the story glacially slow in places to let the audience deduce what is going on at their own speed. This will NOT be to the liking of movie fans who like their films in a wham-bam of CGI, but was very much to my liking. The film in fact has very little exposition, giving you lots to think about after the credits roll: there were elements of the story (such as her book) that still generated debate with my better half on the drive home. Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are first rate and an effectively moody score by Jóhann Jóhannsson ("Sicario"; "The Theory of Everything") round off the other high-point credits for me. An extraordinary film, this is a must see for sci-fi fans but also for lovers of good cinema and well-crafted stories. (Agree? Disagree? Please visit bob-the-movie-man.com for the graphical version of this review and to comment. Thanks).

• Not A Masterpiece, An Achievement

  cdjh-811252017-01-05

  Arrival was one of my most anticipated movies of 2016 I loved all the trailers for this film and the talent behind it made me even more excited to see the final product and I can safely say that I was blown away by the final product. This is a slow burning, thought provoking and incredibly intriguing Sci Fi masterpiece that I think in future years will become a classic. Amy Adams gives one of the greatest performances of her entire career in this film, she perfect embodies someone who is determined in her pursuit but damaged by her experiences and it's a performance that will hopefully give her an Oscar. Jeremy Renner was just perfect casting for this film he was incredibly convincing in this film and his chemistry with Adams was fantastic. Forrest Whitaker was great in this film and it was nice to see a different type of role from him. The slow pacing of this film worked perfectly it helped to build up the slow burning suspense and gave the characters more time to be developed better. The special effects in this film are also fantastic mainly because they are used sparingly as it is clear that the focus is more on the characters. Denis Villeneuve did such an amazing job directing this film he really sucked you into the situation and made it seem more life like. This film asks a lot of questions about humanity and how it interacts and these questions are incredibly intriguing and thought provoking it forces the audience to think on real life and accurate the events of this film are to real life. The whole mystery of why the aliens are here is done perfectly you're more that likely to change your mind at least once and when a mystery like that is built up for so long it's hard to make the eventual discovery satisfying but in this case it was, the eventual reveal makes you look at this film in an entirely different way, the film also doesn't feel the need to answer every question it asks leaving certain things ambiguous that allows the viewer to think on their own answers. Arrival is a film that trusts the intelligence and patience of its audience, it is complex and thought provoking but is never boring or dull. This is not only the greatest film of 2016 but it's possibly one of the greatest I've ever seen. I truly believe that in the future this film will become a classic. 100%/A+