Arrival is a sci-fi film about aliens visiting the Earth that takes the high-road with the preconceptions. No laser blasts nor aggressive creatures bent on overthrowing mankind. As an ‘aliens have arrived’ films go this can only be seen as a good thing.
Add into this mix the main protagonist as an intelligent woman who only wants to solve the mystery of communicating with the ‘guests’ and you have something that could be labeled ‘adult science-fiction’. Louise Banks is a great leading character, she never resorts to violence and only uses her intelligence, experience and, dare I say, intuition to resolve seemingly insurmountable problems.
Juxtaposing this is the unfortunate US military who are once again tarred with the hot-head brush with an angry, violent, mistrusting group festering within them. Certainly, this is a giant cliche that I am guessing is added to give the audience something, and by extension Amy Adam’s character, to bounce off. It is a very old dramatic trick and in my opinion, weakens the movie. It is the 21st century do modern audiences still need melodramatic, potboiler, ploys to poke them in a certain direction? It would be brave if film-makers took a step back and decided not to have ‘baddies’ or angry characters the viewers can hiss and boo at.
It’s a minor quibble of mine and not really specifically aimed at Arrival in all honesty. Any cine-literate viewer will have seen these plot devices over and over again enough times to start to get weary of it all.
Notwithstanding the cliche Arrival has a fine cast with the always great Amy Adams, an actor I call a ‘Cornflake performer’ as in I would be happy to watch her eat a bowl of cornflakes – she would be great I’m sure.
Jeremy Renner is given the smaller role – it would have been the other way around a few years ago – with fewer lines and a much smaller but important part in the story. In all honesty he looks more comfortable in a what could be said to be as an ‘egghead’ than he does in his macho-tough-guy roles. Adams’ stellar efforts backed up by Renner are further supported by the great screen presences of Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlberg, who I initially mistook for Joaquin Phoenix.
The effects are great and look realistic enough to blend in seamlessly with the action and the creatures and their language do not disappoint. For me, and I’m well aware it probably is only me, I would have been happy with a tad more solving of the language as it seemed to go from ‘not really sure’ to ‘full on communication’ in a beat. Once again a minor quibble.
The major point of the story – I won’t give it away – was reasonably mysterious and actually well thought out enough to be slightly plausible and it was way into the running time before I cottoned onto what was happening. I see this as a major plus point for the makers, usually I can rapidly suss-out what is going to happen or why it is happening in a story. The weaker aspect, again without spoiling the direction of the story for those yet to see the film, is the resolution of the problems facing mankind near the end. The plot twists and turns itself into farcical knots that clearly unravel on closer examination.
Director Denis Villeneuve whips the whole thing along at a good pace, possibly too slow for some sci-fi fans, but to my mind, it has very little baggage and the look and feel are perfect – this bodes well for the sequel to Bladerunner, a film that has caused me no end of consternation. Being one of my favourtie films I’m not looking forward to a sequel never asked for tarnishing my happy experiences in the world of Roy Batty.
Arrival does have a massive elephant in the room though, it has been addressed by better reviewers than me, i.e. all of them, and that is the similarity in the story, tone, feel and even characterisation to the film version of Carl Sagan’s Contact. Add a dash of Interstellar jiggery-pokery and you have a distinct and even uneasy feeling of familiarity.
Arrival is an intellectually stimulating science-fiction movie rather than a CGI explosion fest about visitation from ‘aliens’ featuring a strong, resourceful, female lead. You never know that type of character could make a great Dr. Who. Just a thought…
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2017-08-20T08:36:04Z
Arrival is a sci-fi film about aliens visiting the Earth that takes the high-road with the preconceptions. No laser blasts nor aggressive creatures bent on overthrowing mankind. As an ‘aliens have arrived’ films go this can only be seen as a good thing.
Add into this mix the main protagonist as an intelligent woman who only wants to solve the mystery of communicating with the ‘guests’ and you have something that could be labeled ‘adult science-fiction’. Louise Banks is a great leading character, she never resorts to violence and only uses her intelligence, experience and, dare I say, intuition to resolve seemingly insurmountable problems.
Juxtaposing this is the unfortunate US military who are once again tarred with the hot-head brush with an angry, violent, mistrusting group festering within them. Certainly, this is a giant cliche that I am guessing is added to give the audience something, and by extension Amy Adam’s character, to bounce off. It is a very old dramatic trick and in my opinion, weakens the movie. It is the 21st century do modern audiences still need melodramatic, potboiler, ploys to poke them in a certain direction? It would be brave if film-makers took a step back and decided not to have ‘baddies’ or angry characters the viewers can hiss and boo at.
It’s a minor quibble of mine and not really specifically aimed at Arrival in all honesty. Any cine-literate viewer will have seen these plot devices over and over again enough times to start to get weary of it all.
Notwithstanding the cliche Arrival has a fine cast with the always great Amy Adams, an actor I call a ‘Cornflake performer’ as in I would be happy to watch her eat a bowl of cornflakes – she would be great I’m sure.
Jeremy Renner is given the smaller role – it would have been the other way around a few years ago – with fewer lines and a much smaller but important part in the story. In all honesty he looks more comfortable in a what could be said to be as an ‘egghead’ than he does in his macho-tough-guy roles. Adams’ stellar efforts backed up by Renner are further supported by the great screen presences of Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlberg, who I initially mistook for Joaquin Phoenix.
The effects are great and look realistic enough to blend in seamlessly with the action and the creatures and their language do not disappoint. For me, and I’m well aware it probably is only me, I would have been happy with a tad more solving of the language as it seemed to go from ‘not really sure’ to ‘full on communication’ in a beat. Once again a minor quibble.
The major point of the story – I won’t give it away – was reasonably mysterious and actually well thought out enough to be slightly plausible and it was way into the running time before I cottoned onto what was happening. I see this as a major plus point for the makers, usually I can rapidly suss-out what is going to happen or why it is happening in a story. The weaker aspect, again without spoiling the direction of the story for those yet to see the film, is the resolution of the problems facing mankind near the end. The plot twists and turns itself into farcical knots that clearly unravel on closer examination.
Director Denis Villeneuve whips the whole thing along at a good pace, possibly too slow for some sci-fi fans, but to my mind, it has very little baggage and the look and feel are perfect – this bodes well for the sequel to Bladerunner, a film that has caused me no end of consternation. Being one of my favourtie films I’m not looking forward to a sequel never asked for tarnishing my happy experiences in the world of Roy Batty.
Arrival does have a massive elephant in the room though, it has been addressed by better reviewers than me, i.e. all of them, and that is the similarity in the story, tone, feel and even characterisation to the film version of Carl Sagan’s Contact. Add a dash of Interstellar jiggery-pokery and you have a distinct and even uneasy feeling of familiarity.
Arrival is an intellectually stimulating science-fiction movie rather than a CGI explosion fest about visitation from ‘aliens’ featuring a strong, resourceful, female lead. You never know that type of character could make a great Dr. Who. Just a thought…