Arrival - Contact but better

[Kato]

So, I guess I might be late because German release dates and all but I still thought I'd make a thread since I couldn't find one.

So, I saw the movie and... it was good. I mean, usually I'm the type who likes simple, fast, comedic, action-y stuff, but somehow since for the most part this movie seemed to try really hard to be realistic (something you can obviously argue about, especially at the end) it worked for me. I'll just use spoilers for the rest...


So, yeah, the aliens where decent, I liked the octopus/squid approach (more squid, I guess), even if the bit with the ink was a weird coincidence then I guess. And maybe I should have wondered earlier how they seem to have no eyes but focus on written communication... Or did they have eyes I didn't see? Well, they clearly could see, somehow.

The whole plot I think progresses pretty decent and logical. Maybe the jump between the first phase of communication and them kind of having a dictionary is fast or skipped over, but then I'm no linguist. I could argue about the fact that a bunch of idiots can try to blow this thing up with nobody noticing but... whatever. I guess we needed that instead of the chinese taking shots first.

Okay, so, the big "twist". As far as "big twists in scifi" go I liked it. Certainly way more than whatever the writers of Contact meant with theirs, and yeah, I know, the internet will hate me, also much more than Interstellars. Even hinted at early with the no-beginning-or-end aspect. Does it make sense that you can see the future by learning a language? No. Am I willing to accept it if it is done as well as here. Sure. Maybe the ending could have had a bit more time than it did but... eh, it's okay. I mean, it felt a bit like "well, we delivered the twist, time to get over with the rest of this. People are not going to pay attention anymore now, right?" I mean... why did they keep Renner's character hidden for so long afterwards?

Both Adams and Renner did a fine job, though Adams clearly had far, far more to do. And did so pretty well. Maybe you could argue she was a bit cold, but frankly I don't mind that.

And now here's my weirdest complaint... why was this not in 3D? If only, ONLY for the language. These things have magic handwriting. It would totally make sense for their writing to not be circles but something three dimensional. That would have been for once a really good addition. But then maybe not worth the additional cost/price.


So, yeah, definitely among my favorite recent sci fi movies. If it wasn't for Martian recently, maybe the best, unless I'm forgetting something. I won't recommend it to everyone, because obviously not everyone is into rather slow moving, unfunny, scifi movies. But if you want a decent idea of how a first contact might go, it's worth it.

[kraftcheese]

I really liked it as well; I think it's the best handling of the "first contact" theme I've seen in a movie.

[Ruslan]

I really liked the plot twist where the
"flashbacks" of her daughter are actually flash-forwards. A very cool twist that makes you reevaluate the whole movie, on par with Sixth Sense.

[Ranxerox]

I really like this movie a lot. Ahhh, science fiction with Big Ideas™, be still my beating heart. Also, good acting, all around good writing and special effects that make completely incredible look totally real; in other words an across the board excellent movie. However, as much as I enjoyed this movie, I think that a sequel to it could be even better, because that would give them a chance to take the Big Ideas™ touched upon in the first film and explore them in more depth.

Abbott knew that there was a bomb there that would kill it and Abbott had the power to stop it. However, Louise was making her big breakthrough as the timer counted down to zero, and in order to stop the bomb from killing it, Abbott would have prevented the breakthrough from occurring. Nor could the bomb be expelled when Louise was expelled because then the bomb would have killed Louise. So, Abbott had to take one for the team, and more than that would have spent its entire life up till that point knowing that it was going to take one for the team. As would Costello have spent its entire life knowing Abbott and knowing when and how Abbott would die. Of course Costello could take comfort in the knowledge that since time isn't linear, it would ever really be separated from Abbott. I'm not sure exactly how much comfort that would be to Abbott though.

Okay, it is one thing to grok this out as a heptopods, but Louise's students once they become proficient in the Universal Language will have to live with this type of knowledge just like Louise has to live with the knowledge that her daughter is going to die young and her husband is going to leave her. Now Louise seems to be able to take this knowledge gracefully, but will all her students be able to find such calm or will the part of their brains that still thinks in terms of linear time rebel against futures that are also nows and are parts of there past too?


While navigating there new sense of time might be hard for Louise's students, think how the rest of the world is likely to react to having them in their midst. Knowing our species I can't think that we would handle it with anything approaching grace. The saying goes that in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, but if you have ever seen the movie Blindness (and if you haven't, you should) then you know that isn't the only way that scenario can play out. So, I think there is potential for a thinking action movie is showing how Louise's students survive and effect change world that might not be too happy to be informed that linear time is obsolete.

Personally I like that all of the heptopods' sentences took the form of circles. Circles have neither beginnings or ends which make them a good match for how the heptopods see things.

[Kato]

I really liked the plot twist where the
"flashbacks" of her daughter are actually flash-forwards. A very cool twist that makes you reevaluate the whole movie, on par with Sixth Sense.
Eh... not to give Shamalan too much credit but I wouldn't put it quite up there. It's interesting but rewatching the movie for it? Not in my opinion. (I'd maybe rewatch it for the sake of itself, though)


I really like this movie a lot. Ahhh, science fiction with Big Ideas™, be still my beating heart. Also, good acting, all around good writing and special effects that make completely incredible look totally real; in other words an across the board excellent movie. However, as much as I enjoyed this movie, I think that a sequel to it could be even better, because that would give them a chance to take the Big Ideas™ touched upon in the first film and explore them in more depth.


I do like the Big Ideas™ but I feel if you'd actually explore it in a sequel I think you'd way fast run into massive problems that either ruin the rest or force you to get philosphocial in a way I don't like movies to be.