Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguistics professor living a quiet life filled with work, glasses of wine at home, and memories of her daughter whose life is caught in glimpses from birth to her young death.  Her students are distracted one day due to the arrival of twelve alien spaceships hovering over 12 locations around the world.  The military requests her help in communicating with the aliens known as Heptapods.  She is whisked away to rural Montana with theoretical physicist Ian (Jeremy Renner).   They can enter the giant black egg shaped ship about every 18 hours to talk with the Heptapods who communicate through sound and inky circles which contains a whole sentence or idea.  Louise and Ian must figure out why the aliens are here and whether they are delivering a weapon or gift to the human race.

 

ARRIVAL is a clever subtle sci-fi movie from director Denis Villeneuve (the director of the BLADE RUNNER sequel out next October) which is a visual treat as its ideas and themes feel like something you see in Solaris or Stalker (two films by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky).  The movie has a few surprises I won’t talk about since the twists would spoil the experience and the story.  I find myself still thinking about it as ARRIVAL touches upon the barriers of language and mistrust.   People are so easy to distrust other humans and even aliens.   Language and point-of-view is even a barrier.   Also the Heptapods communicate through a non-linear way while we communicate in a straightforward linear manner.  If you’re expecting an alien invasion movie with big battles, ARRIVAL isn’t the movie for you.  However if you want an intelligent and thought provoking film, you want to go see what is one of the best movies of the year.  ARRIVAL is an instant sci-fi classic.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

XENOLINGUSTICS: UNDERSTANDING ARRIVAL- discussing the story and making an intellectual sci-fi movie in addition to making the aliens (and their spaceship) different from what has been seen from before

ACOUSTIC SIGNATURES: THE SOUND DESIGN- a look at the various sounds used in the movie

ETERNAL RECURRENCE: THE SCORE- a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the score

NONLINEAR THINKING: THE EDITING PROCESS- the editor and other crewmembers discuss how editing (along with the sound, score, and VFX) influenced the final film

PRINCIPLES OF TIME, MEMORY, & LANGUAGE- a discussion about time, memory, and linguistics and how it relates to the movie

 

Code to instantly stream and download a digital HD copy of the movie

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  ARRIVAL is one of the best sci-fi movies I have ever seen.  The behind-the-scenes extras discuss the movie in detail and worth watching if you want to know how they made it and the various elements in it to make it a very intelligent sci-fi film.

 

This review is ©3-10-2016 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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