Arrival [**SPOILERS FROM POST 45 ONWARD**]

FunLover18

MeatTwoVeg wrote:

My post isn't about "the point", merely an observation on the ridiculousness of the central plot driver.

I think "the point" being referred to is that the aliens have a non-linear view of time and therefore they know that in order for the humans to help them in 3000 years they need to teach the humans their language, and seeing as they can already see how that happens/happened they know that their is no need for them to learn how to communicate with humans. One of my main problems with the whole non-linear time perception: causality goes out the window.

tunguska

Went to see this saturday, ended up in liffey valley as rathmines was sold out. Funnily enough liffey valley was only half full? Go figure. Anyway Im still digesting this film. Reckon its a grower, will get better and better upon subsequent viewings. I liked it though, its intelligent, kind of like the antithesis of Independence day Resurgence. Amy Adams is good, although not Oscar worthy. I mean its a solid performance but not award winning. Jeremy Renner is good aswell. Its beautifully shot and the script is tight. Its the kind of film critics will love but I reckon the average movie goer wont be into or have the patience for.

MeatTwoVeg

FunLover18 wrote:

I th in order for the humans to help them in 3000 years they need to teach the humans their language, and seeing as they can already see how that happens/happened they know that their is no need for them to learn how to communicate with humans.

They communicate incredibly inefficiently and nearly cause the Chinese to attack them.
Any civilisation possessing the technology to embark on an interstellar journey to Earth will have already worked out a fool proof plan to communicate.
"Hi we're aliens and we're here to teach you our language, please send your linguistics experts to the designated landing sites.
They're not going to rock up and start waving tentacles.

Mitch Connor

MeatTwoVeg wrote: »

They communicate incredibly inefficiently and nearly cause the Chinese to attack them.
Any civilisation possessing the technology to embark on an interstellar journey to Earth will have already worked out a fool proof plan to communicate.
"Hi we're aliens and we're here to teach you our language, please send your linguistics experts to the designated landing sites.
They're not going to rock up and start waving tentacles.

Was it not pointed out in The movie that getting humanity to work together (required for learning the language, the knowledge was split into 12 pieces). It wasn't about just teaching one person the language - it was imparting the language and forging a new path for humanity at the sane time, as part of the ultimately same goal.

FunLover18

MeatTwoVeg wrote:

They communicate incredibly inefficiently and nearly cause the Chinese to attack them. Any civilisation possessing the technology to embark on an interstellar journey to Earth will have already worked out a fool proof plan to communicate. "Hi we're aliens and we're here to teach you our language, please send your linguistics experts to the designated landing sites. They're not going to rock up and start waving tentacles.

I agree but the nature of their perception of time means that they don't need to learn a way to communicate because they can already perceive that their mission will be/is/has been a success without a way of communicating. In the same way that Louise doesn't need a way to change Shang's mind because she "remembers" how she will/did change his mind in a flashforward.

david75

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Was it not pointed out in The movie that getting humanity to work together (required for learning the language, the knowledge was split into 12 pieces). It wasn't about just teaching one person the language - it was imparting the language and forging a new path for humanity at the sane time, as part of the ultimately same goal.

There's the point. Thank you. Get us to work together as a species and enlighten us an get us to come to that enlightenment rather than spoon feed us.

johnny_ultimate

The practicalities of communicating with an alien species are among the most interesting things about this story, and what separates it in the pack. The whole 'you need this to help us in the future' angle is one of the major concessions towards more familiar genre tropes in the film, and tbh it doesn't need it.

There's no such complications in the source material - the reasons behind the 'arrival' are much more ambiguous, and perhaps just boil down to the primal fascination of two alien species encountering each and learning from each other. The 'realistic' - well, relatively so for a written language that allows users to perceive time 'simultaneously' - linguistic and practical dilemmas are IMO much more intriguing and help completely separate this from the pack of other sci-fi movies. There is no reason to believe teaching each other languages would be something that could be achieved easily if 'we' and 'they' perceive the universe in an entirely different manner.

Pertinent passage from the book:

The physical universe was a language with a perfectly ambiguous grammar. Every physical event was an utterance that could be parsed in two entirely different ways, one casual and the other teleological, both valid, neither one disqualifiable no matter how much context was available.

When the ancestors of humans and heptapods first acquired the spark of consciousness, they both perceived the same physical world, but they parsed their perceptions differently; the world-views that ultimately arose were the end result of that divergence. Humans had developed a sequential mode of awareness, while heptapods had developed a simultaneous mode of awareness. We experienced events in an order, and perceived their relationship as cause and effect. They experienced all events at once, and perceived a purpose underlying them all. A minimizing, maximizing purpose.

doubledown

Just out. See Arrival.

It's thought-provoking, mesmerising, haunting, hypnotic, life-affirming and heartbreaking. One of the best films I have seen all year. As a parent of two very young children I found it particularly upsetting.

Not necessarily for everyone but highly recommended.

Fysh

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The practicalities of communicating with an alien species are among the most interesting things about this story, and what separates it in the pack. The whole 'you need this to help us in the future' angle is one of the major concessions towards more familiar genre tropes in the film, and tbh it doesn't need it.

There's no such complications in the source material - the reasons behind the 'arrival' are much more ambiguous, and perhaps just boil down to the primal fascination of two alien species encountering each and learning from each other. The 'realistic' - well, relatively so for a written language that allows users to perceive time 'simultaneously' - linguistic and practical dilemmas are IMO much more intriguing and help completely separate this from the pack of other sci-fi movies. There is no reason to believe teaching each other languages would be something that could be achieved easily if 'we' and 'they' perceive the universe in an entirely different manner.

Pertinent passage from the book:

I understand why it couldn't be a bigger aspect of the film, but the question of theories of mind underpinning languages is an important one. See for example Peter Watts' excellent Blindsight for a novel-length piece of hard sci-fi dealing with first contact.

eviltimeban

Saw it last night, thought it was fantastic. Beyond the visuals, the acting, the directing, and music, the core IDEA of the movie is what makes it essential viewing. The revelation about the daughter was brilliantly handled, and I genuinely didn't see it coming. Felt very emotional by the end as I could relate to her "some time is better than no time" rationale regarding her daughter.

And, of course, the visuals, acting, directing, and music were all fantastic. Amy Adams deserves an Oscar, maybe not for this movie, but in the immediate future - she's building up a seriously impressive body of work.

This rates very highly on the "cerebral sci-fi movie" scale; sthe likes of the aforementioned Contact and Interstellar, but also Moon, AI, The Abyss, and Solaris.

Mark Hamill

Overall I enjoyed it, but I found the tension in the last ~third a bit stupid. All the issues at the end basically come from the fact that they translated the Heptapods purpose as offering a "weapon". But then Adams Character points out that they hadn't actually determined the difference between a tool and a weapon with the Heptapods. So which genius, when deciphering the Heptopods word for "object with particular use" decided to label it as as weapon (a very specific kind of "object with particular use")? It just seems very stupid to me for any linguist to make that kind of mistake, particularly when the films was at pains to explain the importance of avoiding such mistakes before hand.

MeatTwoVeg

johnny_ultimate wrote:

There's no such complications in the source material - the reasons behind the 'arrival' are much more ambiguous, and perhaps just boil down to the primal fascination of two alien species encountering each and learning from each other. The 'realistic' - well, relatively so for a written language that allows users to perceive time 'simultaneously' - linguistic and practical dilemmas are IMO much more intriguing and help completely separate this from the pack of other sci-fi movies. There is no reason to believe teaching each other languages would be something that could be achieved easily if 'we' and 'they' perceive the universe in an entirely different manner.

We don't just encounter each other though. They very deliberately arrive on our planet.
Any species advanced and evolved enough to accomplish such a feat will be very unlikely to want to communicate with us. At best they'd view us as interesting monkeys.

I sat there for most of the movie, thinking about how nice it was to have a major movie that didn't pander to the Chinese market (I'm looking at you Independence Day 2, Iron Man 3, Transformers .. whatever the one with Mark Wahlberg was, & many others) - it showed China as being aggressive and the people that possibly might be the ones that signal the end of the world. But then it turned around in the closing act and painted China as being the heroes, essentially.

But still.. it was a completely mindbending, thought provoking, and interesting movie. Undertones of Slaughterhouse Five and the Tralfamadorians. Afterwards I kept trying to figure out the linear progression of the movie, trying to establish what the present was against what the past and future are/were. And then I realized that this was pointless - it was as non-linear and as scattered as Memento, with the wonder of Contact.

It also raises so many dark undertones - imagine knowing that you're going to get married, your marriage is going to collapse once your husband knows that you know what'll happen, that you're going to have a child, and that this child is going to die-- and still going through with all of it.

Probably the best movie I've seen this year and the best I've seen in the cinema for a long time.

I thought it'd be absolutely hilarious if at some point Abbot & Costello communicate and then it shows the translation as being -

"Why the f*ck do you keep bringing the bird? It's annoying as balls".

Decuc500

One of the year’s best films for me. I thought it was gripping and entertaining yet also very thought provoking.

For a film maker that is so prolific Denis Villeneuve’s films are consistently brilliant.

peteeeed

Decuc500 wrote: »

One of the year’s best films for me. I thought it was gripping and entertaining yet also very thought provoking.

For a film maker that is so prolific Denis Villeneuve’s films are consistently brilliant.

yep, my expectations for the blade runner sequel have shot up dramatically with Villeneuve in the directors chair

sheroman01

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Its not just her that could see the future though - the implication of what she says re. the language is that anyone who learns it and understands it, will see the world and time in the same way. The language would change humanity, forever.

So, because she fully understands the alien's language means she can see the future? And if someone else was to understand it, they could see the future too?

MeatTwoVeg

MeatTwoVeg wrote: »

Obviously a suspension of disbelief is required for SF films, but the idea that an alien civilization would be advanced enough to master interstellar travel but not have figured out a suitable means of communicating with the species they're travelling to, beyond farting out some ink, is quite frankly, beyond preposterous.

Perhaps they hadn't "remembered" it yet, just as Louise didn't "remember" how to convince General Shang not to destroy the ship in China until it was almost about to happen.

I'm just wondering if the linear timeline is incomplete and leaves gaps until you experience certain things that will be a trigger for filling in the blanks.

.ak

Loved it.

Would maybe dock it a point for the dragging out the 'revelation' bit towards the end. You know what happens, no need to dumb it down.

.ak

peteeeed wrote: »

yep, my expectations for the blade runner sequel have shot up dramatically with Villeneuve in the directors chair

Didn't realize he got BR sequel... I'm very happy now.

Will Jóhann Jóhannsson get to score that also? His work in Arrival, Sicario and Prisoners is amazing.

I love Jóhann Jóhannsson's work. He did this excellent series of songs, which centered around old IBM computers, including the sound of a Processing Unit and a tape of someone reading a user manual. Sounds boring, but is oddly magical.

Edit:

This song reminded me a bit of the excellent score from Girl With All the Gifts

peteeeed

.ak wrote: »

Didn't realize he got BR sequel... I'm very happy now.

Will Jóhann Jóhannsson get to score that also? His work in Arrival, Sicario and Prisoners is amazing.

Yes he's scoring the sequel

Dr Crayfish

Saw it last night. I love sci fi but in saying that there's only a handful of sci fi films I really love. This is one of them now. I just thought it was perfectly paced, I was enthralled. The revelation about the child was something I didn't see coming. Best movie I've seen in a long long time. Imagine you were guaranteed that standard of film once a week?

Sudden Valley

A good movie with an interesting twist but not one I would rush back to rewatch. The best scenes for me were the one's with her daughter, I was just not "wowed" or interested after the first few alien interactions and they make up the majority of the running time of the movie. Amy adams was great but I think she needed a stronger supporting character and Renner had very little to do and has very little screen presence
Did wonder if you learn something from the future and can then use it change something in the present to make that future happen is that supported by any scientific theory?

indough

Deleted User wrote: »

I thought it'd be absolutely hilarious if at some point Abbot & Costello communicate and then it shows the translation as being -

"Why the f*ck do you keep bringing the bird? It's annoying as balls".

I was thinking of how great it would be if it turned out they were talking to the bird the whole time

expectationlost

what is the timeline of releasing the book and meeting the chinese general?

Sad Professor

expectationlost wrote: »

what is the timeline of releasing the book and meeting the chinese general?

I'm not sure, but I assume the book was the result of several years work where as the meeting with the general happens shortly after the aliens leave.

FunLover18

expectationlost wrote:

what is the timeline of releasing the book and meeting the chinese general?

Sad Professor wrote:

I'm not sure, but I assume the book was the result of several years work where as the meeting with the general happens shortly after the aliens leave.

Doesn't he mention something about it being 18 months since she changed his mind

Sad Professor

Yeah, so the book is definitely later. I can't remember how old her daughter was in the scene when you see her unpacking a copy from the publisher.

FunLover18

Sad Professor wrote:

Yeah, so the book is definitely later. I can't remember how old her daughter was in the scene when you see her unpacking a copy from the publisher.

Is there not a big poster for her book in the background when they meet, or is it just one of the language's symbols? Must be because you're right about her unpacking it with the daughter in the background

Sad Professor

Yeah, there is, but that's not necessarily associated with the book. It's just the alien language we had been seeing throughout the film.

The book would have taken years to write. Remember they said it would take all 12 countries sharing information to do it. It's the culmination of all her study of the language. The party in which she meets the general would have been the start of that process rather than the end of it.

expectationlost

just wondering how long until they let everyone else learn the language

peteeeed

expectationlost wrote: »

just wondering how long until they let everyone else learn the language

i was thinking about this, how bonkers would a sequel be?

Sad Professor

I assume it was all in her book. But I'd imagine many people wouldn't want to know, or the work involved in learning would be too difficult for many people of the current generation. Think of how much more naturally technology comes to younger generations.

A sequel in which society becomes divided between speakers and non-speakers would be interesting, though. Even though the aliens know this will unite humanity, I'd imagine there would massive upheaval in the short term.

pixelburp

Smart without being pretentious, epic without being bombastic, this was definitely one of the strongest Sci-Fi films of the last few years and managed to be such while also being one of the more optimistic of the genre in a much longer time. While not all that surprising given the current state of the world, Science Fiction has become a broadly apocalyptic, nihilistic brand, where humanity is often merely slumming it until we contrive to extinguish ourselves. That 'The Walking Dead' is the most popular show on US TV says it all. For anyone yearning for the days when sci-fi was a little more hopeful, and a little smarter in its step, this would be the film for you.

Arrival managed to buck that trend of hopelessness, and it did so with little fuss yet a mountain of confidence in itself; never overly pandering in dumbing-down its inherently complex concepts, or indulging in excessive mawkishness with the more human moments. Where a film like Interstellar bludgeoned the viewer over the head with its themes of love & compassion, Arrival threaded a subtler, more meaningful sense of what it was to be human. Even Arrival's close genetic cousin - the underrated 'Contact' - dialled the sentiment too far.

What's more remarkable is that it told an optimistic tale, while maintaining a legitimate threat of the unknown, a tangible 'otherness' of the aliens: the easy route would have been to make the aliens more palatable, more traditional in appearance, yet Villeneuve ensured there was only ever a strong disconnect between humanity & the aliens. In a film about (mis)communication, it was important the audience never projected its own bias of what the aliens could be up to. These potential saviours had to be, well, slightly gross.

If Arrival achieved one interesting victory though, it certainly suggested there was little to fear about the Villeneuve-helmed sequel to Blade Runner, because on the evidence of his CV thus far, he can turn his hand to anything & make it work.

kingcurls

Really can't understand the reviews this film is getting, and the frustratingly narrow response from people that "you just didn't get it" seems to be reassuring people of their point of view who seemed to have taken some deep personal meaning from the film.

Continuing without any great spoiler alert because the thread has it in the title:

For me it was very well shot and acted film which fell down woefully in it's final act. There certainly was great tension and 'realism' (as realistic as you can hope to be with the subject matter of aliens arriving and what they might look like) created in the first two acts. The score, the genuine breath holding first entrance to the communication chamber and Amy Adams overall great performance being particular highlights.

The general theme of the film purports itself to be communication but then with the reveal of the twist tries to add in a personal layer about choice in your life and knowing the outcome of your choices. Having figured out relatively early that the timeline was askew and possibly the daughter didn't exist yet (and Renner being the obvious choice for father) maybe the reveal was spoiled for me but there are some unforgivable blunders in the final act which led me to leave the cinema shaking my head.

- The subtitling of the aliens in a dreadful bit of plot exposition is unforgivable and was genuinely laughable.
- The Deus Ex of the Chinese general handing her the solution in her now non linear perception of time again laughable and lazy.
- The time paradox of the general approaching her in the "future" in order to convince her to call him in the "past" makes no sense unless they are suggesting there are infinite possible futures (in which case how lucky she saw the one that mattered)
- The slow drawn out closing sequence did nothing other than bash the viewer over the head with the reveal in case you hadn't gotten it yet... who's that the daughter is calling Daddy??? Oh its Jeremy Renner! Shock!
- The fact that she would purposely cause great distress and harm to Renner's character by using him to have a child knowing he would abandon her for her deceit when he found out is troubling. She was perfectly happy for her child to live with a broken relationship with her father, lose her partner and suffer the pain of losing a child and having that child also suffer pain for what? So she could enjoy the few short years with her child?


IMHO here is how the film should have concluded (I'm not a screenwriter but a frustrated movie fan) -

The child should have held the key to her solving the world crisis and unifying nations, not the Chinese General. At least then there would have been a genuinely heart wrenching decision for her to make - sacrifice her relationship, have a child whom she know is destined to die young and suffer great personal loss in order to ensure the advancement of the human race.

Would that not have been a better way to wrap up? Keen to hear your opinions.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

MeatTwoVeg

kingcurls wrote:

Would that not have been a better way to wrap up? Keen to hear your opinions.

Yeah, that was better.

mewso

One of the better films I've seen this year but it's biggest flaw for me is that this 'gift' seems more like a curse. Learn this aliens language and experience the death of everyone you love today. Why wait? You can see if they go peacefully or screaming in agony by purchasing this book right now for just $24.99.

eviltimeban

kingcurls wrote: »

Really can't understand the reviews this film is getting, and the frustratingly narrow response from people that "you just didn't get it" seems to be reassuring people of their point of view who seemed to have taken some deep personal meaning from the film.

You just didn't get it.

hollymartins

I saw it today in the Lighthouse, just a handful of people watching it. I usually bring my baby to the parent & child screenings there but it's my last day of maternity leave and they're in the creche so I thought I'd treat myself to seeing a film on my own. In hindsight it wasn't the wisest choice of film as I was tearful during the opening scenes with her daughter and I started off again at the end

I'm not a huge sci-fl fan but I thought it was very effective, I liked how there was a core group of actors rather than a cast of millions.

Fysh

kingcurls wrote: »

Really can't understand the reviews this film is getting, and the frustratingly narrow response from people that "you just didn't get it" seems to be reassuring people of their point of view who seemed to have taken some deep personal meaning from the film.

Continuing without any great spoiler alert because the thread has it in the title:

For me it was very well shot and acted film which fell down woefully in it's final act. There certainly was great tension and 'realism' (as realistic as you can hope to be with the subject matter of aliens arriving and what they might look like) created in the first two acts. The score, the genuine breath holding first entrance to the communication chamber and Amy Adams overall great performance being particular highlights.

The general theme of the film purports itself to be communication but then with the reveal of the twist tries to add in a personal layer about choice in your life and knowing the outcome of your choices. Having figured out relatively early that the timeline was askew and possibly the daughter didn't exist yet (and Renner being the obvious choice for father) maybe the reveal was spoiled for me but there are some unforgivable blunders in the final act which led me to leave the cinema shaking my head.

- The subtitling of the aliens in a dreadful bit of plot exposition is unforgivable and was genuinely laughable.
- The Deus Ex of the Chinese general handing her the solution in her now non linear perception of time again laughable and lazy.
- The time paradox of the general approaching her in the "future" in order to convince her to call him in the "past" makes no sense unless they are suggesting there are infinite possible futures (in which case how lucky she saw the one that mattered)
- The slow drawn out closing sequence did nothing other than bash the viewer over the head with the reveal in case you hadn't gotten it yet... who's that the daughter is calling Daddy??? Oh its Jeremy Renner! Shock!
- The fact that she would purposely cause great distress and harm to Renner's character by using him to have a child knowing he would abandon her for her deceit when he found out is troubling. She was perfectly happy for her child to live with a broken relationship with her father, lose her partner and suffer the pain of losing a child and having that child also suffer pain for what? So she could enjoy the few short years with her child?


IMHO here is how the film should have concluded (I'm not a screenwriter but a frustrated movie fan) -

The child should have held the key to her solving the world crisis and unifying nations, not the Chinese General. At least then there would have been a genuinely heart wrenching decision for her to make - sacrifice her relationship, have a child whom she know is destined to die young and suffer great personal loss in order to ensure the advancement of the human race.

Would that not have been a better way to wrap up? Keen to hear your opinions.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

I get what you're going for, but I cant help feel that making the child play a part in resolving the situation at the end would play out as hackneyed in practice, if anything more implausibly convenient than the thing with the general (which was, admittedly, a bit overdone for dramatic purposes).

The thing with the general handing her the solution to the problem feels like a deus ex machina because it is - there's no way a non-linear-time-resolution will *not* feel that way, because it's essentially "free" information. Having that as something separate to the storyline with the child felt more honest to me, in that there's no reason for the two sets of events to be causally linked. I would've preferred if the general had said something like "after repeating my wife's dying words, you then told me that I would meet you in 18 months, and that when we met I was to say those exact words to you, in Mandarin" to close the loop.

.ak

peteeeed wrote: »

Yes he's scoring the sequel

Oh my....

rhino_hunter

i totally get why this movie is being so well received by critics , its a movie with an uber liberal message and philosophy

thought it was awful garbage myself

Agent Coulson

I really enjoyed the film but I can't be the only one who expected all 12 ships to return to there proper shape at the end of the film.

mikhail

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I really enjoyed the film but I can't be the only one who expected all 12 ships to return to there proper shape at the end of the film.

On that, their shape was quite interesting: it's a rattleback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmEf7aIhpF8

RDM_83 again

My one line description of this film would be "magic realism with Aliens not Sci-Fi"

Fysh wrote: »

I understand why it couldn't be a bigger aspect of the film, but the question of theories of mind underpinning languages is an important one. See for example Peter Watts' excellent Blindsight for a novel-length piece of hard sci-fi dealing with first contact.

All I could think of when watching this was that I would rather be reading Blindsight.

Left the cinema very disappointed, I would recommend this film to people who aren't really fans of print sci-fi and that really like films like the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind where a sci-fi concept plays a very secondary role to the emotional journey of the characters.
Perception of time does not imply time travel, this is an easily tested hypothesis go out and eat far too many magic mushrooms. no you haven't been stuck in a time warp but you may have annoyed everybody else by repeating the same questions for 5 hours

rhino_hunter wrote: »

i totally get why this movie is being so well received by critics , its a movie with an uber liberal message and philosophy

Thought the same myself, If your a reader I would recommend Blindsight (AFAIK you can download the ebook for free) or searching out some science fiction from the cold war era, there is much often a lot more cynical and cold hearted (and possibly realistic) viewpoint relating to the "other". Alternatively if you want a film thats way more realistic in a super confusing way about timetravel cos time travel is super confusing if you think for 5 seconds about it watch PRIMER.

Fysh wrote: »

You, er, missed the bit about her publishing a book called The Universal Language in the future, with one of the heptapod words on the cover.

- There is a massive and highly flawed assumption here, it implies she is the only one who ever learns the language until she prints the book, its clear from the film that others have some grasp of the writen language and all this information is available to others, leaving aside that its stupid to expect that the most important problem in the word would only be tackled by one american women

Fysh wrote: »

The problem is that it raises a similar question to

Dr Manhattan in Watchmen - if you are aware of how future events will happen, what are the implications of that for our conceptions of autonomy and free will? Which is a fascinating question, but very tricky to allude to in brief fragments, especially if it's happening as part of a wider cultural conversation rather than between a select group of individuals

Its not just a fascinating question it basically sort of ruins things if you think about it at all and its never engaged with once in the film, it says "your father thought I made the wrong choice", internal logic to the film is, she could make no other choice.

Fysh wrote: »

It most definitely is science fiction, in that it's a comparatively grounded look at how a first-contact scenario with benevolent aliens might play out. For example, if Ursula Le Guin wrote an Earth-set first contact story I could imagine it turning out something like this.

Major fan of Le Guin but this can't be called "most definitely science fiction", maybe she would have done something like this but it would have been under her "fantasy/ indeterminate" bracket.

To quote the Lady herself "There have been really few science fiction movies. They have mostly been fantasies, with spaceships."

Havent read the source material maybe its better.

Film does look well and the 'feel' of it works, just wish they had gone a different direction with things and not done the standard, time travel saves the day ****. Havent read the source material maybe its better.

david75

Caught between a rock and a hard place this film. Joe punter doesn't like it cos it's sci fi and going over their heads. Sci fi fans don't like it cos it's not sci fi (enough. Or at all).

strandroad

kingcurls wrote: »

IMHO here is how the film should have concluded (I'm not a screenwriter but a frustrated movie fan) -

The child should have held the key to her solving the world crisis and unifying nations, not the Chinese General. At least then there would have been a genuinely heart wrenching decision for her to make - sacrifice her relationship, have a child whom she know is destined to die young and suffer great personal loss in order to ensure the advancement of the human race.

Would that not have been a better way to wrap up? Keen to hear your opinions.

I think it kind of happened though, she submitted to the version of events she knew so that things could play out as she saw them - so in a way going through with having and losing her daughter did save the world.

alchemist33

This may end up being one of my favourite science fiction films ever. A fantastic film

Dempsey

This film suffered badly from lazy writing in the 3rd act to the point where I wouldnt recommend this film to anyone unless you really want to waste time and money.

Hrududu

Person One: I've just thought of a cool plot twist that would be great in a movie

Person Two: Great. Do you have a solid plot with fully fleshed out characters to put it in to?

Person One: ...

Coming this December, Arrival!