Arrival *review*

Arrival

Arrival is certainly the most entertaining and thought engaging movie I’ve seen all year if not the best film I’ve personally seen that has dealt with the subject of language, addressing both the importance of it and the struggle to conquer the barriers is represents.  Arrival is not a film to breakdown into pieces, it’s better when experienced naturally  as the less you know about the film the more enjoyable the experience you receive.   So out of deference to the film this review is going to focus specifically on the technical aspects of the film without really saying much more about its story or theme.

With that said I can’t talk about Arrival without talking about the impressive acting of both Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.  It is very nice to Amy Adams start breaking out of her sweet and innocent roles and showing the world that she is a much more diverse actress then she often gets credit for. Jeremy Renner is also to be commended for causing me to stop making Hawkeye jokes early in the film and simpily become invested into the character he was currently portraying which was a refreshingly different kind of role for the avengers actor. The other actor roles were so small that it’s not really worth mentioning but it is always nice to see Forest Whitaker and his lazy eye pop up.

The visuals of the film were also very impressive as the actual special effects were rather reserved as the film primarily relayed on breathtaking camera shots and cinematography it was visual treat in all the ways movies used to be amazing before we relayed solely on CGI to sell our movies instead of actual talent.

Arrival is something that has been sorely missing from the theater of late, a solid think piece of entertainment that is not bogged down with pretentious Oscar bait soliloquies.  Arrival doesn’t feel like it has to cater to anyone but itself everything flows in a elegant narrative that can appeal to everyone, and In an era of cheap, knock off, check your brain in at the door movies it’s nice to see someone stand up and attempt to once again  challenge our minds without sounding like a  pompous snob.

Spoiler Corner: No seriously ,they are actual spoliers ,they will bite! Dont say I didin't warn you.

.  So the military wants a linguist to translate an alien language so they don’t start an installer war but they won’t actually take the linguist to the location to help communicate with the creature directly?  That just seems like a ridiculously unnecessary complication of the situation.  

. Why are all advanced races and people giant squids? 

. They even write in ink, come on!

.  That said I do actually like the featureless designs of the Heptapods it helps keep the focus on language as there are no facile features to read and very little body language to interpret.

. oh, look it’s a bomb,  how on earth did that ragtag group of soldiers get on the alien ship, plant a bomb and get out without the aliens or the military higher ups putting a stop to it.

. Subtitles!!!  Who else suddenly feels a great sensation of relief.

. Wait, they understand her perfectly now?  Were they were just trolling us the whole time?

.  OOOOHHH I get it now, that’s not now it’s later… that…that is pretty clever actually; I did not pick up on that one.

. So uhh, who’s going to tell Superman that Hawkeyes putting the moves on Lois Lane?