When I first saw the trailers for “Arrival,” I imagined a soft-release alien movie that would tank in the box office and receive little critical praise.
As the movie approached its release date, no one could ignore nor predicted it's much-sought-after 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, calling the movie “terrific” for its “genuinely affecting emotion and performances.”
But as most imperfect movies do, “Arrival” lost its perfect score upon release, falling to a 93 percent rating. Still, it's hailed as one of the year’s best.
But I have mixed feelings. Spoilers ahead.
“Arrival” is both ambitious and intelligent. The movie was in good company with great performances from Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, who played the linguist and theoretical physicist tasked with translating a foreign language far beyond the realm of any human-generated one.
After 12, oddly-shaped, gigantic space crafts appear randomly across the Earth, panic sets in, as the intentions of the extraterrestrial beings remain unknown due to an immense language gap.
Louise Banks, played by Adams, is recruited to help decode this foreign language in Montana, where one of the vessels parked ever-so ominously, amidst the rolling green hills and fog.
Colonel Weber, played by Forest Whitaker, lands a military-grade helicopter in Banks’ backyard, where she is lifted off with Ian Donnelly, played by Renner.
The two immediately begin their work. As they enter the space craft for the first time, they meet with two cephalopod-like aliens, appropriately named Abbott and Costello. After many attempts to decipher their spoken language, Louise soon triggers the aliens to reveal their written language, which comes in the form of a complicated, intricate, black, smoky, circle emitted from their scary hands.
With the help of Ian, Louise begins to understand a basic corresponding of their “circles” to English vocabulary after just a few games of Charades and Pictionary— aliens vs. humans. It’s a big stretch, but I’ll bite.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, that exposition is the best portion of the film. The second half of this movie tries to do a little too much, as the movie just throws its hands in the air and detaches itself from any sort of logic.
Louise begins to see flashbacks of her daughter, whom this movie is forcing us to understand because it has something to do with the aliens. At the same time, Louise, Ian and other analysts around the world are convinced they’ve translated one of the alien’s messages, reading: “offer weapon.”
But Louise’s admirable optimism leads her to believe that discrepancies in the language could be the reason for not fully understanding their new, threatening message. Meanwhile, around the world, worlds leaders on their big Skype call, disconnect one by one and are not all convinced that the aliens wish to bring peace.
The big reveal in the end didn’t do anything for me. The scenes meant to be "jaw-dropping" toward the end left my jaw un-dropped and my mind un-boggled. It was the same feeling I had toward the movie “Interstellar.” There was a good cast, a good story, a good beginning, a decent middle but a bad, pretentious ending.
The script also lagged at times and I never caught on to the “genuinely affecting emotions." It fell a little flat for me. The movie does try to do something different, though, and I appreciate the heady, stimulating storytelling.
I liked “Arrival,” but I just didn’t love it, nor am I in agreement with most people who did. It’s strong first half and decent performances carry little weight when all is said and done. It is still exciting and worth seeing, but for 90 percent of the movie, audiences are just waiting for the big reveal.
I give "Arrival" a 6.8/10 stars.
