Review of Arrival (2016) by Ravissary79 . — 05 Nov 2017

How can I possibly explain this without saying too much? Okay, no spoilers.

1)-This film is beautiful in every way: it's visually stunning, yet simple, realistic, yet also fantastical in an almost tangible way. The sound design, ship effects and creature effects are all minimal and yet timeless and perfect. The script is creative, technically strong and different than most anything else out there.

2)-But it has one weakness and that weakness is the same one that most "deep" films have: it isn't as deep as it thinks it is and it presents certain human problems at certain key plot points very two dimensionally, but not as badly as many other sci-fi films (like Trek)... it's more that certain philosophical concepts pivotal to the film are deep and cool, but they're ultimately absurd and are a real reach. it's almost a New Age optimistic fantasy.

But don't get me wrong, it's all handled so much better than most films with a similar philosophical problem that it can almost be forgiven.

Advice: if you love the ideas in The Fountain, Interstellar, Memento and Star Trek TNG, you'll love it. My philosophical problems with it might not be shared with most people, but it's core doesn't extend much further than this philosophy... which limits how much you can enjoy it.