Denis Villeneuve 'Arrival'

[FlyRy]

I don't really know where to begin on this movie so I'll start at the beginning, when the movie opens to a musical score of strings, and the tone of this musical score carried a weird kind of emotional weight that made me think of life, and I thought how few movies dare to open heavily with "life", and how great it would be to have a movie open at the start of life, with birth. Much to my surprise, we then see Amy Adams' character nourish her newborn child. In this weird moment at the opening of the movie, the imagery on screen had perfectly aligned with my feelings towards the music used, so in that moment I realized that Villeneuve might truly be on another level. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Arrival is a cerebral sci-fi movie. I say cerebral (although the snob in me desperately wants to say "intellectual") because it approaches its sci-fi themes very maturely and poetically. For a huge part of the movie the sole purpose of the movie really seems to bring more understanding to the viewer to the power (but also complexities) of language, how it affects culture, how easily it can be misinterpreted and how important, at all times, it is to communicate. It is not an action movie. It does create scenes of suspense but mostly for the purpose to bring extra attention to the importance of communication, of understanding. I saw the movie at KINO Rotterdam, the greatest new theater in the world (they were one of only six theaters in the country that picked up The Wailing, this weekend they play the digitally restored version of Once Upon A Time In The West, on Sunday they have a special breakfast buffet followed by a screening of Breakfast At Tiffany's and they continuously do arthouse highlights so in a week they'll be screening Refn's Bronson, which didn't even make theaters here upon its initial release!), and this seems like pointless information, but afterwards I headed over to the mainstream movie theater in the city to finally catch Don't Breathe, and I overheard one plebian Hodor tell another plebian Hodor that he'd seen an advance screening and thought it was pure two hour bullshyt of a bunch of people trying to learn a language.

And I suspect to many people, that will be the takeaway, because they refuse to sit there and try to understand what the movie is telling you. This isn't a movie about alien warfare, it's not even about warfare period, it's a movie about facing something you don't understand, and choosing to learn to understand so you can coexist properly. But where the movie shines is that in its execution, it never falters. Villeneuve is one of Hollywood's finest craftsmen and every detail and nuance is incredibly well thought out. The aliens are shrouded in mystery, but Villeneuve presents their mysterious presence as something majestic, channeling quite a bit of his own movie Enemy. The performances incredible, with Adams at her best in ages and Renner reminding us once again how easy it is to forget how excellent he can be.

The movie evolves its own themes and concepts exponentially in the final act, in ways I won't spoil or even hint at, but outside of one annoyingly expository scene (a sole blemish on the movie), Villeneuve's grasp is otherwise unfukkwithable. Calling this a prelude to Blade Runner 2049 would be disservice to the strengths of this film, but watching this I couldn't help but think that if this is what Villeneuve can do with a "restrained" sci-fi movie, we're in for one hell of an otherwordly experience with Blade Runner.

Finally read this.

I think casuals will kinda hate this like The Witch. I'm surprised the cinemascore is a B though.

My #2 of the year as of now

 

[Jermio]

Interstellar was way better than this.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Interstellar was way better than this.

Kill yaself

 

[HHR]

I'm completely unable to separate my take on Arrival from the past week's events. I'll need a rewatch in the future. I thought it was exceptional though.

 

[HoldThisL]

Top 5 of the year

 

[42 Monks]

Could've been better.

Like... I feel yal have to put some emphasis on the weak acting. The editing, direction, cinematography - OUTSTANDING.

There isn't one solid performance in this movie.

That's how great this movie could've been.

 

[TheGodling]

Could've been better.

Like... I feel yal have to put some emphasis on the weak acting. The editing, direction, cinematography - OUTSTANDING.

There isn't one solid performance in this movie.

That's how great this movie could've been.

Outside of Whitaker doing some kind of Denzel impersonation I thought the acting was generally great, certainly by Adams and Renner.

 

[TheGodling]

Finally read this.

I think casuals will kinda hate this like The Witch. I'm surprised the cinemascore is a B though.

My #2 of the year as of now

Well, The Witch is literally the antithesis of what most people want from "horror", this is still very much in line with what one would expect from a sci-fi flick, even if its approach is slower and more cerebral than most.

 

[42 Monks]

Outside of Whitaker doing some kind of Denzel impersonation I thought the acting was generally great, certainly by Adams and Renner.

Renner had almost no effect on the movie man

Dude is getting checks for showing up to random sets lol

And the captain stuff? That was just so hamfisted and sloppy...

 

[Tasha And]

Liked it even more the second time. I can see why others don't though. We went with a group and a few weren't feeling it. Still think I like Contact a little more but it shyts all over Interstellar.

 

[42 Monks]

Interstellar has more things to pick at, but ehhhhh

ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[StraxStrax]

@TheGodling out here schooling fools :airbud:

My #2 of the year as of now

Same here.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Renner had almost no effect on the movie man

Dude is getting checks for showing up to random sets lol

And the captain stuff? That was just so hamfisted and sloppy...

His character was wack and seemed just like a prop

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

Liked it even more the second time. I can see why others don't though. We went with a group and a few weren't feeling it. Still think I like Contact a little more but it shyts all over Interstellar.

I think this, contact and interstellar all suffer from the same over dramatic tone but imo, neither of them deliver the knock out blow. contact she meets an alien in the form of her dead dad

Insterstellar dude goes into a 5th dimensional book shelf

And this movie just goes the extra length to put you front and center for a revelation of the ages but really just leaves u wanting more, at least I did. I'm really not sure what I just watched. and I haven't seen anyone in this thread break it down.

 

[FlyRy]

Same here.

What's your #1?