Review of Arrival (2016) by Legitsalt — 03 May 2020

Arrival is a sci-fi film only in presentation, as the film explores deeper themes of human communication and aggressiveness. While Arrival’s initial presentation may seem jarring and somewhat flawed, as the movie progresses and the twist is revealed, the editing choices and the pseudo-confusing sequencing end up contributing to the movie's meaning as a larger whole.

Arrival explores various linguistic and psychological theories and takes them to an extreme, even using them as the crux for its storytelling. While it does benefit the viewer to be familiar with psychological concepts, especially linguistic determinism, the film does a good job explaining the fundamental concepts the story is based upon.

Arrival is not only a cautionary tale but also a hopeful one. Arrival purports that through cooperation and coordination, i.e. through avoiding competition, a future which benefits more to a greater degree can be achieved.

In this way, Arrival is a greatly anti-capitalist film presented in a widely digestible way. Villeneuve is a highly-skilled director, and, with Arrival, he shows that he can blend genres and excel while doing it.