Review: 'Arrival' heralds the start of a new portrayal of aliens
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 116 minutes (~2 hours)
“Arrival” is a science fiction film.
It sees how humanity copes with the arrival of aliens on Earth. Will the planet stand united in our communications with beings from another planet, or will humanity fall apart as every country becomes increasingly insular?
It stars Amy Adams (Louise Banks), Jeremy Renner (Ian Donnelly), Forest Whitaker (Colonel GT Weber), Michael Stuhlbarg (Agent David Halpern), Tzi Ma (General Shang), and Mark O’Brien (Captain Marks). It is rated PG-13.
It’s really odd how Amy Adams keeps staring in films which involve aliens and horribly washed out blue colours, and “Arrival” is no different in that respect. However, the film sees the actress helming the communication with the alien invaders as she struggles to understand their language. Despite the scale of the inciting incident (the whole world is desperately trying to figure out how to deal with the aliens, after all), the movie never loses sight of its objective — which is to find out why the aliens are here.
Highlights
Clear and discrete goal for the protagonists
The movie frequently goes into subplots and minor asides, especially with Louise’s (Amy Adams) flashbacks, but it never strays from its goal of finding out what the aliens want. This is especially important since there are so many other objectives that suddenly pop up, like discovering what a particular word means or preventing a country from being hostile to a far superior alien race. This ever-present and well-defined target is what helps the story stay on track in a film that could easily have lost its focus amidst all the other minor storylines.
Fresh take on aliens
“Arrival” presents aliens in a way that’s both unique and plausible. By making constant comparisons to how humans have responded to foreigners and colonisation, the film subtly explains the behaviour of the countries and the military as they try to quantify a force that defies any sort of conventional classification. The countenances of the different characters also provide exposition for the approaches they take towards the aliens. Ironically, by treating the aliens like they were humans from a different country, the film makes their alienness even more stark.
Insight into linguistics
Being a language professor, Louise’s approach is to understand what the aliens are saying so as to determine why they’re on this planet. She gives a short linguistics lessons to show the audience (and her superiors) the rationale for her actions, and this aspect is particularly interesting. It educates you on something we all take for granted, language, and how even across different races, the same concepts and parameters of language hold true. It might be a little nerdy, but it casts new light on a subject that’s rarely covered in mainstream films.
Realism
The most exciting action you could take with aliens would be to blow them up, something that the film only considers as a last resort. It’s not only fresh, but it adds realistic flavour since you see the military explaining their stance and also all the paperwork and procedures that Louise and Ian (Jeremy Renner) have to go through to communicate with the aliens. It’s not the most dramatic way to approach it, but this adherence to real life is synchronous with the explanations of linguistics and the take on aliens.
Letdowns
What is wrong with the colour correction?
Aliens are considered part of science, and science is considered cold and sterile, explaining the muted colours in “Arrival”. But it goes overboard by dumping every shot with this stringent sterility. Is it too much to ask for just one shot of vibrant colours? Isn’t the ultimate message of the film a positive one?
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes.
Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? If you like science fiction.
Score: 3.5/5
“Arrival” opens in cinemas:
– 12 January, 2017 (Singapore)
– 1 December, 2016 (Malaysia)
– 15 February, 2017 (Philippines)
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.
