Arrival Review


     How bored are we all with movies about aliens?  It seems that every summer, we're given another boring movie that sticks to every stereotype ever of science fiction.  It has made a once great genre incredibly boring.  I'm here to announce that Arrival is not only the smartest, but best sci-film of the 21st century.

     Arrival follows top linguist Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams).  Dr. Banks is recruited by The United States Military and Colonel Weber (Forrest Whitaker) to try and communicate with a race of Aliens that has arrived on Earth.  She and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) a top physicist, repeatedly board the alien ship as they try and grasp the alien's language.

     Arrival is a giant mystery, that you cannot take your eyes away from.  The film slowly reveals it's plot and it's point to the viewer in tiny, little pieces as it unfolds.  So many times, director Denis Villeneuve could have easily copped  out and gone the traditional sci-fi route of aliens and humans going to war.  Instead, he creates a beautiful, cerebral, and intelligent film about humanity and language.  it takes all of the traditions of science fiction, and makes the view think that eventually it will go traditional.  Instead, the film ends with a moving and quiet twist ending, that truly leaves the viewer with a dropped jaw.

     If there was any doubt that Denis Villeneuve, was one of the top directors in the world, Arrival can easily answer those questions.  Villeneuve gives a new life to genre of science fiction that hasn't been given since master auteur Stanley Kubrick invented 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Christoper Nolan looks like an amateur, idiotic filmmaker compared to the master class in directing Villeneuve gives in Arrival.  Tentatively, it's safe to say that it is my favorite movie of the year.  Then again, this probably change another five times at least.

Grade (10/10)

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