Film Review: Arrival

I'd only seen the trailer for this movie a couple of times and I didn't know exactly what to expect from it. Would it be like War of the Worlds where there's aliens trying to kill and harvest everyone? Obviously I wasn't expecting E.T or anything similar, but I wasn't sure what it was going to be like. It seemed very mysterious and different from the rest, just from the trailer.

I won't give away any spoilers, as I say in every film review, but I will give you the basis of the story. UFOs turn up in twelve locations around the world and hover above ground, with not much happening. Amy Adams' character, Louise, is a linguist and is brought in to try and communicate with what's inside the spaceships. There is also Jeremy Renner's character, Ian, who is a theoretical physicist (I immediately thought of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory when they said this!) and he is brought in to work with Louise to try and work out what these aliens want.

You do get to see the aliens. I'm one of these people who are never satisfied with the appearance of aliens in films, but at the same time I couldn't tell you what I think they should look like. Aliens are something I've always struggled to imagine up if I read any sci-fi books, but in this film I think the look of the aliens works well.

There is a twist/revelation in this film about two-thirds of the way through. I was quite proud of myself that I'd clocked onto it a little while before it was revealed, it made me feel very clever! Obviously I'm not going to disclose what this twist was on here, but you have to go in with a mind open to it as I've read some reviews where people have said that they were just completely confused by it.

I loved the cast. Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are great, as is Forest Whitaker. I also loved the visuals - look out for the scene when they lose gravity and walk up the walls). Overall, I enjoyed it.

I'd rate this film:

I really liked the idea behind this story, the cast were great (I could see Amy Adams getting some award nominations for this). It's not your typical space film or an alien invasion movie, it's much more intelligent than that.

I'd recommend seeing this film if you like space movies, or something that makes you think. Let me know if you see it and tell me what you think of it.