Yesterday I watched Arrival; and it was very interesting! Directed by Denis Villeneuve, and starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker, and based on the short story: Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang; Arrival is a science fiction drama film, about a linguist with a tragic past, who has been asked by the government to try and communicate with alien lifeforms who have suddenly appeared in large spaceships all over the world! Going into this film with an open mind was tricky, given me feeling towards Dune, but I was soon able to overcome that. Arrival is a very interesting film which takes a much more clever route in the Alien Invasion genre, by looking for a way to peacefully communicate with the aliens, rather than going in all guns blazing, like say Independence Day. It takes it’s time to build up tension and intrigue, and fills the void not with emptiness, but clever theory work, which is both very interesting, and frequently very captivating. It kind of makes me think of a sort of crossover between two science fiction TV shows from the 1990’s: Invasion Earth, and the ‘Trial by Fire‘ episode of The Outer Limits. One in the minimalist approach to a potential alien incursion, and the other; in trying to translate the language of an alien race. The film however interesting does have a couple of annoying little niggles. Firstly there is a lot of whispered mumbling, particularly from Whitaker, so be prepared to put the subtitles on. And the ending is rather ambigious, so be prepared to look at the film’s synopsis on Wikipedia. But other than that, it’s a very enjoyable film, with great character development, and a nice, but intricate story to get engrossed in!
I do not know how it’s possible, for a film simpler than Inception, to have an ending harder to read than Inception?
Things I Like 
Leave a comment