I am in general wary of watching science fiction movies about an alien invasion or a close encounter for fear of it being cliché, poorly produced, or unoriginal. Yet Arrival proved to be a fresh take on the first-contact alien movies by pitting intelligent communication front and center.
Most directors or writers would likely opt to depict the fallout or consequences of aliens landing on Earth, yet this movie had none of that nonsense. By focusing on communicating with these creatures, the movie elevated the genre to an almost academic level; teaching the audience about the fundamentals of communication and language and exploring the consequences of trying to interact with an intelligent species with an entirely different mode of conveying language. The careful dissection of each branch and turn of the aliens’ circular writing system was not something you’re likely to find in a Transformers movie.
Of course, the rest of the movie added to the substance; the acting was quite good (Amy Adams rarely fails to disappoint), the cinematography and special effects were seamless, and end was satisfying.
It was quite a good movie. I would recommend it.
This is very similar to my own thoughts about the movie. I deeply appreciated how original the concept was with approaching contact via language. I think Jeremy Renner’s character was meant to function as the audience’s expectation, that the contact would be made via science.
I totally agree with you. Most sci-fi movies show aliens attacking Earth. Meanwhile, this movie actually turned the tables in showing aliens being the peaceful ones, while the humans were the violent ones, wanting to attack the aliens. It is interesting to think about what these ideas imply about humans — are humans innately mistrustful of the unknown? Are humans more inclined toward violence than peace?
I agree that the focus on language was a new perspective in the alien/first-contact genre. It does not have the sensationalism of past movies of this sort, that focus on either the aliens or humans eradicating or defeating one another. I felt like this was a realistic attempt to redo the stereotypical “what if aliens land on Earth” plot. I read somewhere that the linguistic element of the movie was based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that your language influences your thoughts. This was visible in the movie, when the humans thought that the aliens were offering a “weapon” when they had meant to offer new technology
I love this movie! As a linguistics major, it’s really great to see the field get more visibility.
Feel the same. Not a typical alien movie and not trying to paint aliens as good or bad forces – just equal intelligent existence. It resembles people in one country’s first interaction with people another foreign country – learning how to communicate.
Yes, I agree this is a great science fiction movie that makes us think about the challenges to communicate with other beings from other galaxies. Very creative to have a circular writing system that contrast with ours but can still be deciphered by a linguistic Professor played by Amy Adams.