Arrival

Arrival is really Adams' film, a showcase for her ability to quietly and effectively meld intelligence, empathy and reserve.

This is riveting, dizzying stuff from Villeneuve.

Arrival is science fiction in the classic sense and a film of otherworldly ambition.

What’s remarkable about Arrival is its contemplative core—and, of course, Ms. Adams’s star performance, which is no less impassioned for being self-effacing.

Muted, measured and meditative, Arrival brings taste and restraint to a genre in the midst of a mini golden age: It comes in peace.

Adams gives a nicely polished, muted performance: She keeps the story grounded when the ideas Villeneuve is striving for threaten to get too lofty. And the picture is intelligently and effectively crafted, one of those enterprises where the cinematography, sound design and score, as well as the special effects, melt into a seamless, organic whole.

"Enemy" and "Sicario" were unspeakable disasters, and Arrival, the director’s latest exercise in pretentious poopery, gives me every reason to believe I have parted company with Denis Villeneuve for good.

What a great film! Excellent storyline, realistic approach and geopolitical tension. Decent acting. Fantastic CGI and sets. I loved it and would definitely watch it again!

"Arrival" is a gripping, thought-provoking film with emotional depth and intellectual intrigue. Amy Adams shines, grounding a story about communication and humanity with grace. This film's concepts for otherworldly design are intriguing, but after seeing the film, the reason for their visit is still hazy. While there's lots of enticing set up, the proceedings move slowly to a repetitive and frustrating crawl before it's over. Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft hover over various locations around the Earth. This time in cool-looking, mysterious crafts that hover above the earth in 12 places. In the ensuing widespread panic, affected nations send military and scientific experts to monitor and study them. In the United States, US Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) recruits expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) with a troubled past who lost her daughter from incurable illness) who's brought in to try to establish communications with the mysterious creatures and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to study the spacecraft above Montana. board, Banks and Donnelly make contact with two cephalopod-like, seven-limbed aliens, whom they call "heptapods"; Donnelly nicknames them Abbott and Costello. Banks and Donnelly research the complex written language of the heptapods, consisting of palindromic phrases written with circular symbols, and share the results with other nations. As Banks studies the language, she starts to have flashback-like visions of her daughter. Really?! I was really looking forward to this but watching it, I realised Denis Villeneuve seems to be more interested in story than character development. Perhaps it's that lack of humanity Villeneuve is trying to portray. Still, this one of all his films, it seems most incongruous. I'm a **** for intellectual science fiction but a short coming for this film is it's very thin on telling us who these characters are if I asked you to tell one thing about Jeremy Renner's character other than the fact he's good at math I don't think you can. The plot twist in this robs Amy Adams' character of most of her defining characteristics that tell us about her until the end of the film. The emotional climax was really undercut by these two horrendous lines from Jeremy Renner's character. Throughout the film there's hints of romantic attraction between Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner's characters which wasn't earned or well established. And a line Jeremy Renner uses regarding that was astonishingly bad and his final line after that my theater just burst out laughing. The film's strength is in framing an effective science fiction story around a seemingly-unrelated topic and tangling the two until they become inseparable. In this case, we deal with the fabric of linguistics, the desperate search for a communicative first step and how even something so intrinsically dry and cerebral can make for great theatrical drama. Amy Adams gives a quietly empathetic performance in the central role, a frazzled interpreter with a strong sense of personal loss who pours herself into the work. Against the backdrop of your typical plastic-sheeted, pop-up government research facility, she's our human connection to a very clinical, inhuman situation. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are around, and give their roles an earnest effort, but they're too thin and predictable to amount to much. The short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chaing which this is based on provides more context which fills a lot of the gaps that doesn't convey in the writing. Eric Heisserer who adapted this film is know for writing a lot of terrible horror remakes and sequels like "The Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Thing," "Final Destination 5" and "Lights Out" earlier this year. This probably the best thing he's written but a lot of his bad dialogue is pretty eminent here with two lines when Renner's character says "You know what really surprised me wasn't meeting the aliens, what really surprised me was meeting you." As is much of the third act, unfortunately, when we discard the delicate analysis of words (both spoken and written) and give in to baser military-themed temptations. The production values on display here are nothing but extraordinary and also revelotionary from Bradford Young's cinematography which has shallow focus in the flashbacks, Jóhann Jóhannsson score, the sound design from Sylvain Bellemare and the production design from Patrice Vermette which creates a spacecraft which looks unlike any science fiction film before. At its core, Arrival really has one great revelation, and while that's effective at first, it's then rehashed and hammered home until the sharp edges grow dull. I still see a lot of promise here, and while it's in the groove it makes for an authentically strange, different viewing experience. and will surely be recognized when awards season rolls around. The plot's blunt, heavy-handed climax, though, is a bitter pill to swallow.

I feel that this movie could of had a better ending About what she knows other than that’s this movie was good but if you don’t rlly pay attention you will not understand whats going on.

Its a sci-fi film that garnered widespread acclaim upon its release, but its reception may not resonate with everyone. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film stars Amy Adams as a linguist tasked with communicating with extraterrestrial visitors who have arrived on Earth. While praised for its stunning visuals and thought-provoking premise, some viewers may find the pacing slow and the narrative overly cerebral. Despite its ambitious exploration of language, communication, and the nature of time, "Arrival" may not fully satisfy those seeking more traditional sci-fi thrills. Nevertheless, its meditative tone and Amy Adams' compelling performance offer moments of introspection and emotional resonance. Ultimately, "Arrival" may not live up to the lofty expectations set by its critical acclaim, but it remains a respectable addition to the genre, offering a unique take on humanity's encounter with the unknown. Ok, but a movie you want to watch again.

Back in 2016 when feminist plots were subtle, we see a woman above all, the voice of science, the righteousness, perfect emotions, while the men are acting against “science” rooting for conflict, demanding answers, questioning, the men are portrayed as irrational soldiers following orders. Her best friend is a supportive man with no connection with anyone but her.