Arrival Solid Sci-Fi

I know this review is a bit late in coming, but finally had the opportunity to see Arrival which stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. I will be brief and try to remain spoiler free. That means I cannot discuss anything about the plot except to give you the overview that you can see in the trailers.  Simply put, aliens arrive on Earth in twelve locations. The US government sends military leader Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) to find out information about the visitors. In order to communicate with the aliens, Weber assembles a team which includes linguistic expert Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and Physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner). This team must learn to communicate with the alien culture which is vastly different from humans.


Arrival is hardcore science fiction. It is well acted and while a bit slow paced early on, it builds at a good steady pace. It even takes time to play on stereotypes and also poke a bit of fun at fear mongers and pundits. Arrival is also a sort of love story. The themes run strong in this show and deal with powerful themes dealing with how we view our world, life, and the constant fear we have of "the other." Short of giving away the central idea the movie is one that if you allow your attention to drift for even a moment, you will probably end up completely lost.

I like movies that give us things to ponder without being ridiculous in its attempts to be thought-provoking. Arrival offers us a film of solid acting, careful plotting, and powerful themes. It is a complex plot. I have little doubt that I could watch the movie several more times and find new details and plot points I had missed the first time.It is well worth the time. The more I think about Arrival, the better I like it.