Review of Arrival (2016) by Brandon W — 28 Feb 2017

Arrival is directed by Denis Villeneuve, and it stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker in a science-fiction film about alien spacecrafts that come on to earth, but they haven't done anything yet but stand there, and the military come to Louise Banks (Amy Adams) for help as she's the best linguist that they have got for her to understand the aliens about why are they here, what their purpose is, and if they are friendly or not.

Seeing as the Academy Awards are over and we finally know what film won Best Picture, I decide to go on a route of watching films that were nominated for Best Picture. There are definitely going to be some times that I watch something else and review it, but I'll try to watch all of them in that category, and with this, Arrival is one of the films I was most excited about of 2016 as I enjoyed Denis Villeneuve's work like Prisoners and Enemy, and with his next work being Blade Runner 2049 after this, I was curious to see how he can handle science-fiction, which I believe he did a bang up job on it.

Amy Adams gave a great performance given from what she has to do whether it be her horrific backstory, or that she's really tired dealing with world stuff. It's cool to see that we actually have no idea about whether the aliens are friendly or not because this is Denis Villeneuve's first science-fiction film, so it's not quite a certain to where it's leading until later on.

There's also the short story by Ted Chiang called "Story of Your Life", but I haven't read it, and even if there's a clue about it as Eric Heisserer wrote horror films like Final Destination 5 and Lights Out, it still has that mystery feel that is unpredictable.

It's also interesting that writer Eric Heisserer wanted to get this made for years, and finally got the dream that he wanted, while also some rewrites from producer Dan Levine and even the director himself.

With that on topic, the writing by Eric Heisserer is probably the most well-written that I've seen from him as it deals with the themes of the film very well, and asks questions that you don't usually see in a science-fiction film, and manages to answer them in a way that is very satisfying.

It is also the main part of the film as it's a talky flick and it doesn't have any action scenes, so it's only the dialogue that you have to be invested in it, and for me, I was intrigued enough in the movie.

The score by Jóhann Jóhannsson is well-orchestrated that has some beautiful music to listen that felt poetic with what the movie needed, especially towards the ending. It's very smart that it shows that you can get lots of progress from a linguist that I have never heard of until now.

The effects look spectacular that has a great blend of practical and computer effects from the design of the spacecraft, the aliens, and even the language that the aliens speak which has a lot more variety then I thought.

I was also glad that some of the characters wasn't going to the "shoot first, ask questions later" approach which is refreshing to watch when seeing movies like Independence Day: Insurgence.

The cinematography by Bradford Young is really good that I thought that Roger Deakins did it, but since he wasn't the one, but is doing Blade Runner 2049 which also has the same director as this, it's interesting to see where that is going to lead.

With that said, Arrival is just a beautiful film that I understand why it was nominated of Best Picture, and this might be the one where the director's finally going to be recognizable.