Science fiction is one of my favorite genres to watch and especially to write as one's limitations are only exceeded by one's imagination. When I first heard of Arrival and saw the trailer I wasn't really that interested in the film, and although it looked interesting there wasn't much that seem to differentiate it from other alien invasion films. The story is basically about a woman who is a linguist expert and how she and another man are able to eventually create a language to communicate with a group of alien beings who have landed in various locations throughout the earth. There is another underlying story that parallels that one, but honestly I'm still kind of confused when I think about it. Amy Adams played the lead character as Louise Banks very capably and perfectly; conflicted, flawed, passionate, and real. Ms. Adams really did well with her character, and honestly she was really the only interesting character in the entire film aside from the alien beings. Jeremy Renner played Ian Donnelly who was an expert physicist; he was humorous at times, but his character really didn't have a whole lot of depth and came off as rather flat. I'm not certain if it was his performance or how the character was written. Forest Whitaker played Colonel Weber who seemed to be head of operations for what was going on. He did a good job, but his character was completely boring. Aside from the alien beings, those were the dominant cast members. In general the casting was good, and wasn't the problem with the film.
Denis Villeneuve directed the film, and I actually loved his work on Sicario (even though I still believe the lead was miscast) but he captured the mood and what it would feel like to have something like actually occur on our planet so good for him. He even attained an Academy Award for Best Director, although I don't know if that was really warranted; his work on Sicario was far superior. Eric Heisserer wrote the screenplay which was oddly nominated for an Academy Award, because I believe that it was poorly written and caused the film to be one-dimensional and very confusing at the same time. In my opinion it was this poor writing that kept the film from being as good as it could have been. Again oddly enough, the film was also nominated for Best Picture, and I'm not certain why because for example, it isn't even of similar caliber to something like Hidden Figures. I think the Academy has a serious problem with their nominating process that needs to be fixed. Apparently the story of the film is based on something a Ted Chiang wrote, so maybe the story is to blame rather than the adaptation of it. The cinematography by Bradford Young was actually quite good and deserved the Academy Award nomination; there was something very ethereal and gripping that he captured so very well....like being on the edge of a great battle and the silence that ensues. Jóhann Jóhannsson composed the music and I can't really recall any good themes or motifs, or even any good musical sequences, so I guess that speaks for itself. The film was nominated for a few other Academy Awards for sound mixing, editing, production design, and won an Academy Award for Best Sound Design. I didn't care for this film. It was occasionally interesting when I wasn't confused about what was going on. Which by the way a key plot point in this film had appeared in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Interstellar, and Farscape so I wasn't wowed or shocked about the ending as I was already anticipating it. The designing a language bit for the alien beings was perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the entire film, but other than that it came off rather boring and flat. It's almost as if they were trying so hard to come up with something earth-shattering and different that it backfired. If you don't see this film you certainly aren't missing anything. The ending wasn't satisfying, and I was still quite confused about everything. This is definitely a film that I really don't have any interest to see again.Arrival trailer
Arrival interviews with Amy Adams & Jeremy Renner
The Death of Stalin trailer (looks absolutely hilarious!)
