Arrival (REVIEW) | Projector

This hopeful sci-fi drama from the director of Prisoners and Sicario is speaking Film Brain's language, and he thinks it's the movie we need right now.

[quiroz]

Arrivals is a masterpiece. It reminds us why sound design and editing isn't just a technical craft, it's an art. Villeneuve's directing, and the relation between the movie's editing/structure and the plot are just genius.

[Ned]

I am very happy that I found this channel. I love your comprehensive reviews.

[petermatthews]

Very fine review. Thanks for the good analysis and commentary! Subscribed.

[murciadoxial]

when the aliens finally let their written language to be seen i almost cried, that moment was so damn euforic and beautiful, this movie is so good

[bojak]

Hey Filmbrain, thanks for the recommendation. I went to see it today and it was sublime. I loved the heck out of it. Had some issues but that would spoil it. Just wanted to let you know that you sold me on it

[bojak]

one bit I really love was the break down of how complex the simplest of expressions is a beautifully complex creation. When she has to explain why she can't just ask "what is your purpose?" because they have to explain what a question, who "you" is targetting and then, what the heck "purpose" means. Gorgeous scene.

[culwin]

If this is realistic, America will build a wall.

[EmeraldDragon]

I want to see this, I am glad it turned out so good.

[jasoncaldwell]

What's important is that the aliens always understood English. Probably every other language as well.
When they communicate with Louise in person, they are using pictograph but Louise is only speaking.
They knew- they were just teaching Louise at a rate she could handle.
Total G Abbott must have known he'd die long before they arrived. Damn.

[DarkSideReviews]

First of all Brian, were can I get one of those cool accents? This move was really good. I saw it twice. I really enjoyed this film. I agree with your assessment of the pacing. It did feel slow to me but after having seen it more than once and to classify it as deliberate as opposed to slowly paces is a better classification. This film is done so well on all five aspects, sound, script, acting, cinematography and directing. This is a film that the more I think about it the more I see. I think this film is one that leaves some room for individual interpretation because it fosters thought around many different subjects and depending on an individuals prospective will drive what you see in this film. Hate to get too philosophical but I think that there is a lot to see in this movie. Great review.

[E]

Rob Ager in his 2001: A Space Odyssey analysis pointed out that the monolith have cinema screen aspect ratio.

[KNadoli]

Gotta say, the last few years have been good for hard scifi movies, specifically from directors who are good with high concept stuff i.e Nolan with Interstellar(yesi enjoyed despite some of the issues i had with its tackling of "love"), Ridley Scott with Martian, Alex Garland with Ex Machina, and now Villenueve with this. do you think smart, deliberately paced hard sci-fi is making a comeback in Hollywood in the vein of 2001, Matt?

[RetailSisyphus]

Hey Film Brain this is probably a dumb question but as someone who has attended both is the movie going experience much different in the Uk as opposed to in the States? I imagine you guys have different candy and older theaters but other than that I'm curious.

[andresarellano]

I love the film but the Alien's white Screen being a metaphor of the film's own aspect ratio would not have been very original. It has been done before in Kubrick's 2001. Hint, take the Monolith, and rotate it by 90 degrees. What does it look like?

[Scorpio]

Hey, Mathew, I have a question. Why did you go from your scripted reviews to your current format?

[X-any-all]

In reality, the US would have been the first nation to get paranoid, xenophobic and pull out from the joint efforts of the rest of the world.
Honestly, the movie would have been way more realistic if it was set in some place in Canada, like Manitoba, as oppose to Montana, USA.

[GeeVanderplas]

While I did enjoy the movie a lot, the ideas of human loss as a point where our existence stays felt ripped straight out of Deep Space Nine's pilot episode...

[triplesevensix]

Amy Adams is tasty man! She looks great in Nocturnal Animals. Wow! Good review lad. Nice one.

[MegF]

People have said this movie was a "mind fuck", but what I found was your review is a "mind fuck". How did we watch the same movie and get such a different view? How are so many people going bonkers over this movie? It is a puzzlement. --- We found it a waste of our time and money. We found it boring, slow, ridiculous at points, actually rather predictable, and did not grip us with any emotion. I've read a lot of sci-fi and read about a lot of globalism, so didn't find it particularly interesting. They didn't appear to have had a linguist on staff because that part was stupid or we'd be conversing with dolphins. I found the acting to not be pulling us into the characters. How did they spend $47 million to make this movie? Would have been okay if was much shorter and an episode on a tv show, but not worth the long movie. UGH! -- But here's my comment for your channel to make some adsense money.

[Juel]

Ehhh I'm kinda split on this movie. I did enjoy it and thought it was well made with some interesting themes and subjects but it failed in screenplay imo. There was a lot of plotholes, some of which really hamper my enjoyment of the movie. ***SPOILERS*** Like for instance the sick kid. The movie clearly shows that you can alter the future with knowledge of the future so why the fuck did they make the disease lymphoma? That shit is curable if detected early enough so the entire last emotional epiphany fell flat for me.
Also they could have cut out the bomber entirely and built more on Amy/Renner relationship or something, that was such a non-sequitur that only seemed to want to comment on loud-right but forgot that it needs to fit in the story.
Yeah I got many more complaints which is annoying because with a rewrite or two the movie could have been one of the greats instead of a flawed but interesting piece.

Btw this is very far from hard sci-fi. If this fitted in that genre it would mean that it's scientifically feasible to see through time if you learn a couple of ink rings on a screen. That's basically some Star Wars level hard sci-fi right there (Honestly the force is more belivable than the time language).