Arrival

Science fiction films have fulfilled certain archetypes over the years including epic space operas (Star Wars, Star Trek), surviving situations while finding a way back home (The Martian, Gravity), fighting against aliens (Alien, Predator franchises), action movies with sci-fi elements (District 9, Elysium) and even smart movies that expresses themes reflected on our modern society (Interstellar, Planet of the Apes). As wonderful as it is to stick with the epic blockbusters, the refreshing nature of scaling down to a smart sci-fi movie helps bring the audience to a new perspective. That's what came to mind while watching the trailer for Arrival, a new entry to add to the smart science fiction films. It previewed an interesting premise and only a few well known actors in the main cast driving the movie. After listening to the welcoming feedback from some reviewers, my enjoyment of science fiction movies pushed me to enter the theater with open anticipation and, much like the previous entry in this blog, its material greatly impressed and left an impact on my mind from its content.

Plot: The story starts with the Earth being visited by 12 enormous alien spaceships, sending panic and concern about what the aliens intentions for the humans are. To discover this, a linguist is selected by the US military to lead a team and learn what purpose the aliens desire in coming to Earth. From there there are two separate puzzles to figure out throughout the movie. The first puzzle is the obvious one: what do these new visitors want from them? The second puzzle is spread throughout the movie and the movie relies on the audience to figure this out while making sense of it at the end of the movie. The story's pacing is slow but in a good way and keeps the focus where it should be. While the nations work to learn the aliens message, outside events presents themes relating to what's happening now. Without going into detail about it, watching the plot unfold makes it clear and entices the audience to reflect on our modern society. Overall the puzzles and themes presented in the plot of Arrival are simple and thoughtful to watch.

Characters: There are three main characters to focus on in Arrival: Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), and Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker). Dr. Louise Banks is a linguist selected by the US Military to solve the message of while these alien spaceships have landed on Earth. She is the main primary character to focus on and a lot of the story requires Amy to drive it all forward. She brings her strong dramatic side into her performance dealing with communicating with the new visitors. Louise is determined with this task and learns more than just the language as she delves deeper. Amy Adams delivers strong results with her portrayal of this strong smart female protagonist. Ian Donnelly is a theoretical astrophysicist brought in to help the military solve this puzzle. Jeremy Renner tends to have a habit of being used in small to medium doses in his most recent work (such as in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the last two Mission Impossible movies) and work fine with the material given to him regardless of the genre. His role as Ian is no exception and performed pretty well as a scientist with answers that develop while working with Louise studying the messages. He doesn't serve as big of a role as her but the ending does introduce an interesting twist. Jeremy Renner takes the screen time given to him and supports the story pretty well. Colonel Weber is the senior US military officer who selects the scientists to learn about the aliens. He Forest Whitaker has the least amount of screen time among the main cast and perform well with the limited role given to him. Weber simply informs the team of the mission at hand in terms of how the nations leaders are reacting to aliens and being stern with them on what needs to be done while adapting to new information is presented to the base. Whitaker works great with supporting parts in his career and, with what was expected of the role, did it well. Overall the casting of Arrival was great in what it was looking for.

Overall Consensus: Arrival challenges the audience to figure out a puzzle of mystery presented throughout the movie supported by Amy Adams powerful acting chops. ⭑⭑⭑⭑1/2

Reasons to watch it: You enjoy watching great science fiction movies that messes with your mind and makes you think. You enjoy watching Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and/or Forest Whitaker. You like watching movies that have a nice slow pace. You are curious to see Jeremy Renner perform outside all of his action movies. You want to see a movie where a message can only be uncovered through communication instead of blockbuster action. You want to see a movie with themes and elements reflecting our modern society.

Reasons to avoid it: You don't like having your mind messed with by smart science fiction movies. You don't like any of the aforementioned actors. You only want to see Jeremy Renner in action movies. You get easily bored by slow paced movies and prefer science blockbusters.