Arrival [2016 film]

A movie that would merit watching again. A first encounter story with a linguist being used to try to communicate with aliens who are in a different environment and with different ways of thinking.

Complex and interesting with a lot of twists and turns and surprises. I think I will have to watch it again to get all the pieces.

Aliens ships land, and a linguist has to figure out what they want.

Real science fiction, that assumes the audience has a brain. How did this get made?

Concept: A
Story: A
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: B

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.4/4

Enjoyable sci-fi film. I was glad I'd read the short story beforehand though as it helped with the film.

Acting: 4.5; Theme: 4.0; Content: 4.5; Language: 4.5; Overall: 4.0

When twelve alien aircrafts land in different parts of the world, US Army Colonel Webster (Forest Whitaker) reaches out to Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist professor, and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a physicist, to help figure out the language of these alien invaders in order to relate and communicate with them. As she learns the alien language, she gains the power to perceive the memories of future events, especially the memory of her daughter's death. Recommend.

***February 27, 2026***

One of the best SF-films ever. Unique first-contact approach

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. (source: TMDb)

General vibe of scientists pulled out by government for top secret project always gives us chills. The story didn't have much sense, but we're okay with it. That will change when you read original story this film is based on, an interesting science fiction exploring an intriguing physics principle, the film mutilates the original plot, not explaining the basic idea, looking senseless. Its makers couldn't understand the science principle behind the original. The result is embarrassing. In the end, the movie fails because its philosophical and scientific kung fu is weak. Arrival ignores well-known time paradoxes such as the Predestination Paradox and the Bootstrap Paradox and thus ignores common sense. To swallow the sugar-sweet ending show more (and of course you'll want to), you will have to pretend that an entirely new, completely unexplained paradigm of non-linear time is possible - one that inadequately defies reason. show less