Arrival (2016)

I just watched Arrival a couple days ago and I wasn't impressed. It was the same old first contact story with mysterious aliens visiting and humans getting nervous.

The tired, military acting like reactionary idiots, trope was so cliche that it made me laugh out loud. I don't for a minute believe the U.S. military or any world power is going to look at an advance alien ship that lands on Earth, freak out! and decide to attack them! Yeah, I know it adds drama! but it's improvable and been done a zillion times before.

I did like the way the aliens looked and the scenes inside their ship. But the bomb idea was ridiculous.

Amy Adams was good, but I don't believe she could interpret the aliens communications either, impossible. Yeah I know about the time perception language, not impressed with that either.

I was hoping for something more intelligent.

In all fairness, it wasn't the US military that attacked the alien vessel. It was a few rogue US soldiers. Now, the Chinese army was about to attack but never did.

I know. Rogue U.S. soldiers who don't follow commands, but manage to sneak a bomb inside the ship past the nose of all the military security...and have a gun battle outside. Meanwhile the U.S. military wants to break off communications with the aliens over the use of the world Offer Weapon. Just the same stuff I've seen before.

I think those soldiers were part of the security team, which would explain the ease of getting the explosives thru "security", but it doesn't explain how they were able to get a hold of the explosives in the first place.

Note: These forums are a safe space so can no-one please bag me out.

Hey guys. I just watched this movie and OMG look at Amy Adams' nose . Is it just me or is it sexy as F? Let me know if anyone else thinks that Amy Adams could be the new Kim Kardashian with those nose curves.

__________________
But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it.

Saw this at a fancy restaurant yesterday:



I assume it translates to "order dessert."

So's she .

I saw a bit of this the other day and it did look pretty generic – Solaris was in my mind a lot. I think I mentioned elsewhere on the forum that the spaceship would have been more awe-inspiring had it not been for Prometheus, which had similar craft; also that as soon as I saw the aliens in their gaseous environment I thought of the villains in Torchwood: Children of Earth. I saw a bit more of them on this occasion and I was still really unimpressed.

I think its a cut above your standard alien contact sci fi film but as you say it never really breaks free of the clichés of the genre.

Besides that I felt the focus on the details of the aliens language was rather dry dramatically. I'd have preferred to see much more focus on the idea of perception of time.

I thought that too from what I saw.

if the two edges would be a little bit closer it could be a zen imagery to express nothingness

The whole thing felt rather "Nolanish" to me, I mean not to quite the same degree in terms of over exposition but it getting caught up in the details of its plot rather than the drama.

I think Blade Runner 2049 was a definite improvement although that two did end up getting drawn more into plot heavy cinema, I think there was a better film there more focused on K's general life and his relationship with Joi with about 1/3 the budget.

I liked the alien language stuff, but yeah the perception of time and how humans couldn't readily grasp it at the aliens level, would have been nice to see. Then we could have cut out the silly sub plot about the army coup trying to destroy the aliens out of fear. That evil army thing was the lamest part of Avatar too.

I agree with that, Citizen. It was definitely a more thoughtful version of the trope, but it was still a trope.

You all should check out this new movie called YOU ARE ALL BANNED!

Arrival is great, great stuff. I thought it subverted the typical alien invasion trope in an interesting and elegant way. I have seen plenty of complaints/comments both from people IRL and online that Arrival "wasn't what I expected it to be", so I don't think this is your typical invasion flick. It also nailed the Hitchcock style audience manipulation pretty much perfectly, setting up the audience to think one thing at the beginning in a really cinematic way, using pretty much no exposition to pull it off. The reveal at the end packs a powerful emotional punch, and both Adams and Renner play their roles really well. One of the best sci-fi flicks of the past decade.

__________________

I'm torn. Now I haven't seen Arrival since theatrical release (I think?) so I will try to avoid specifics as my memory is most likely blurred. I remember really enjoying it and the pace of it all. The time perception, if I remember correctly, was the twist of it all so exploring that more (or before) might have spoiled part of that narrative. As to the military bit, I don't know where to stand. I totally get the arguments and I cannot really disagree there. Still, part of human nature is to fear change. Or at least to fear the unknown. While a military or police force has been used as the catch-all medium to embody the resistance to fear in damn near every movie ever, that still needs to be represented somehow. I wonder what other options could be used? There was the Jake Busey's character in Contact. Would a cult resistance be any better? I'm sure there would be reasonable arguments against that too, I guess.

Maybe it would have been more acceptable had there been a civilian uprising. Not getting a bomb inside of the ship, but causing enough chaos to spook the aliens. That would have required more development I think, as it's easy to just take for granted the trigger happy military cliche that might do what was done in the movie. That extra development could have helped the pacing too though.

Any ideas?

__________________
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

Agree with Sedai. I have a quibble or two, but overall it's a masterpiece and I suspect it'll eventually be regarded as a classic. Not just because the sci-fi is strong, but because it's different, and because it marries that sci-fi to a genuinely difficult (impossible?) question about the nature of suffering and experience, that would be compelling even isolated from the sci-fi aspect of the film.

"Arrival" is one of the best sci-fi ever.

I like your idea of a social uprising out of fear vs a military coup troupe. Your idea seems more plausible too. A social uprising as the antagonist, gives the audience a way into the movie as we can relate to fear of the unknown and mob mentality.

I suspect ending the film with the time plot sent a lot of people out on a high as its IMHO the most interesting aspect of the film but I feel it could have been worked more deeply into the story pushing the drama harder.

I suppose you could argue this really demonstrates divide in how people view sci fi, for some its a genre that allows for focus on interesting scientific concepts but for others its more about creating settings that allows you to explore dramatic/philosophical stories in a more focused fashion. Personally I think the very best sci fi like say Blade Runner or Solaris(or more recently Under The Skin or Hard to Be A God) does the latter whilst Arrival points a little in that direction but doesn't fully commit to it.