Review of Arrival (2016) by Reviews F — 18 Jul 2018

Arrival is a misleading movie. The film will make you think one thing and then another, all while having a great cast and a weak story. Arrival is probably one of my least favorite movies of 2016, which I haven't watched until now. Here is my non-spoiler review of Arrival.

9/10 points go to the ACTING category. Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forrest Whitaker, and friends give great performances. Adams makes a convincing character who's name I have already forgotten. Renner plays Ian, who is the only reason there is one point off from this category. He literally gives a stupid and idiotic delivery for his last line of the film. I won't say it, as it is a spoiler to the end.

4/15 points goes to the WRITING category. The story is basic. Weird aliens come to Earth, people want to know what they are, and Amy Adams is seeing stuff she can't explain. The first 30 minutes of the film and any sequence with the aliens is amazing. The rest is pretty bad. History is determined, but Adams doesn't know what to do/say. Adams is seeing stuff, but doesn't even care about what it is. There are even parts where it seems like present and unknown tense are coming together. The story is not written to well.

10/10 points go to the VISUAL EFFECTS category. The aliens look real, and so do the shells. No problems here like about everything else.

4/10 points go to the CHARACTERS category. The characters are basic. We get little development from them. There is a tiny bit of development for Adams and Ian, but I won't tell you because it is a spoiler. Many people can only be called "people who scream and complain a lot", which is pretty basic.

2/5 points go to the DEVELOPMENT category. There is a bit of a conflict and a bit of a compromise. There is a bit of an answer to a question that doesn't get answered. There are a lot of plot holes. This movie also, as I previously said, has a bit of character development which is a spoiler.

2/5 points go to the ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE category. The score is basic, it is very noticeable most of the time, and that is a bad thing. I didn't find the score at all or even a bit interesting.

3/5 points go to the DESIGN category. The design in a bit cool I guess. It is a bit original and is a bit lame at the same time. It is pretty dark sometimes, and I don't like that. I like the movie's way of showing that things are a bit rushed within the way that things are unorganized. I don't know if that was or wasn't untended by the director.

10/10 points go to the DIRECTION category. Everything that seems planned is done well. Most of the delivery is pretty good. Yeah. That's about all I have to say about the direction of this movie. Nothing stands out.

4/10 points go to the VISION AND SOUND QUALITY category. You can barely hear the actors for most of the movie. The movie is very dark for many scenes which is pretty bad. Some of the scenes do look good. The editing is also pretty bad for most of the film's random vision scenes that Adams is having.

7/20 points go to the MY OVERALL CONSENSUS category. The film is boring, seems unorganized, and overall, I thought it was pretty bad.

Score: 63%.

Grade: D-.