Arrival – Film Review

When it comes to alien invasion movies you tend to see lots of explosions, action and CGI every frame of the picture. With this film, yes there is CGI, yes there is explosions but there is no action. The focus of the film is about making you think based on the experience of the picture than an action packed film. It is a great companion to the 1997 film ‘Contact.’ A thinking man’s ‘Independence Day’ is how I would best describe it.

The performance that Amy Adams brings to the picture is captivating from start to finish of the film. Denis Villeneuve does a great job at directing this alien invasion film to make it have an impact to reflect on how we are as a society and the reality of how we would react in the given situation. How we all are very reactionary as a society and how we aren’t so open to sharing information from country to country.

If you could see your whole life laid out in front of you, would you change things?

The film is very interestingly constructed. At first you feel that the film is linear by later on in the film you find out it isn’t linearly told and that there is a reason behind that without giving away spoilers. I appreciated a film with big twists in it that made you think and realized there were clues that you didn’t even know where there. It definitely has a rewatchability factor. The cinematography was fantastic, such a clean and colorful toned palette.

The creature designs were spectacularly different from anything that I have seen on screen as is the alien ships. The messages of the film are so applicable to our current political situation in the US. We need to work together and learn to be able to communicate with each other to learn how to better ourselves as a society. This film is definitely worth seeing on the big screen to fully immerse yourself in the world. I would definitely consider this a future sci fi classic.
9.5/10