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Arrival

Nilly

Nilly

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Anyone see this??



https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arrival_2016

93%

When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team--lead by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams)--are brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers--and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.

Critics Consensus: Arrival delivers a must-see experience for fans of thinking person's sci-fi that anchors its heady themes with genuinely affecting emotion and a terrific performance from Amy Adams.
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Great little sci-fi that manages to stay grounded but lofty at the same time. Wonderfully original with a great twist. It had a couple of really satisfying 'aha!!' moments that put a smile on my face, which helped because there was a tendency for it to get slow or bogged down in detail, and it didn't have the filmography or spectacle to push through those parts like Interstellar did. I love how the language theme carries through to the end. Thought Amy Adams was great but tbh wasn't that enamored with Jeremy Renner, thought he was miscast.
 
I've been hooked on movies like this ever since Close Encounters, and later Contact (the book was much better, btw).
 
It sucked.. Sorry..

Not an action movie at all.. More like a philosophical movie, that sucked..

On second thought.. It's kinda another of those globalist world hug movies like the new independence day turning into global patriotism rather than american patriotism propaganda infused crap..
 
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Hate to admit I posted before watching the trailer, but yeah - I really like the linguistics theme here.

Thanks.

It's now on my list! :thumbs:
 
Nilly said:
Anyone see this??



https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arrival_2016

93%



Great little sci-fi that manages to stay grounded but lofty at the same time. Wonderfully original with a great twist. It had a couple of really satisfying 'aha!!' moments that put a smile on my face, which helped because there was a tendency for it to get slow or bogged down in detail, and it didn't have the filmography or spectacle to push through those parts like Interstellar did. I love how the language theme carries through to the end. Thought Amy Adams was great but tbh wasn't that enamored with Jeremy Renner, thought he was miscast.
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I saw it a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it, and I liked the twist, but I'm not really sure if I bought the logic of how it played into later events in the film....

Though I suppose that the introduction of any non traditionally "causal" understanding of reality would have that effect. lol

I don't know how many "hard" science fiction novels you've read, but the most remarkable thing about the movie for me was how similar the tone and structure of this film was to that format. It followed the same general forumula - Clearly being more concerned with simply exploring an idea than being flashy, and only really using the presence of aliens, advanced technology, or fantastical elements to further that goal.
 
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Orly? said:
It sucked.. Sorry..

Not an action movie at all.. More like a philosophical movie, that sucked..
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This wasn't meant to be a Transformers-eque film with mindless action. You went into this movie with the wrong mindset.
 
Gathomas88 said:
I saw it a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it, and I liked the twist, but I'm not really sure if I bought the logic of how it played into later events in the film....

Though I suppose that the introduction of any non traditionally "causal" understanding of reality would have that effect. lol

I don't know how many "hard" science fiction novels you've read, but the most remarkable thing about the movie for me was how similar the tone and structure of this film was to that format. It followed the same general forumula - Clearly being more concerned with simply exploring an idea than being flashy, and only really using the presence of aliens, advanced technology, or fantastical elements to further that goal.
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Yeah timey wimey stuff always is good for a head spin, but after talking through it most of the points seemed to slot into place for me.

Are you referring to the fact that we were introduced to the daughter before she'd even made contact? Cos that's the bit that's still a bit weird - I mean, if you don't consider it part of the storyline and just as exposition that did in fact take place in the future then it works but that's clunky storytelling

I just think it was really nice how they wove in the personal story to serve the plot.

Agree completely with how it explored the idea, I've not read too much hard sci-fi (I've read the occasional Asimov) but yeah it's nice when a movie isn't just concerned with being flashy.
 
Nilly said:
Anyone see this??



https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arrival_2016

93%



Great little sci-fi that manages to stay grounded but lofty at the same time. Wonderfully original with a great twist. It had a couple of really satisfying 'aha!!' moments that put a smile on my face, which helped because there was a tendency for it to get slow or bogged down in detail, and it didn't have the filmography or spectacle to push through those parts like Interstellar did. I love how the language theme carries through to the end. Thought Amy Adams was great but tbh wasn't that enamored with Jeremy Renner, thought he was miscast.
Click to expand...
I agree. I saw this last night and the movie got bogged down in the details. Too slow.
 
Nilly said:
Yeah timey wimey stuff always is good for a head spin, but after talking through it most of the points seemed to slot into place for me.

Are you referring to the fact that we were introduced to the daughter before she'd even made contact? Cos that's the bit that's still a bit weird - I mean, if you don't consider it part of the storyline and just as exposition that did in fact take place in the future then it works but that's clunky storytelling

I just think it was really nice how they wove in the personal story to serve the plot.

Agree completely with how it explored the idea, I've not read too much hard sci-fi (I've read the occasional Asimov) but yeah it's nice when a movie isn't just concerned with being flashy.
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It was the scene with the Chinese General that had me scratching my head the most.

She basically seemed to be living in two different times simultaneously, guiding the future conversation in such a way as to answer her questions in the present. How does even make sense? What rules of cause and effect are we playing off of now, using this new model of time?

giphy.gif


I mean... Yeah. Maybe the point was to leave things a bit more ambiguous, in order to preserve an air of mystery around the thing. Personally, however, I think I would have appreciated some clarification of "the rules," so to speak.

But maybe that's just me. :lol:
 
Gathomas88 said:
It was the scene with the Chinese General that had me scratching my head the most.

She basically seemed to be living in two different times simultaneously, guiding the future conversation in such a way as to answer her questions in the present. How does even make sense? What rules of cause and effect are we playing off of now, using this new model of time?

giphy.gif


I mean... Yeah. Maybe the point was to leave things a bit more ambiguous, in order to preserve an air of mystery around the thing. Personally, however, I think I would have appreciated some clarification of "the rules," so to speak.

But maybe that's just me. :lol:
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Yeah I think that comes down to a non-linear time thing lol. It is rather strange that the Chinese General told her exactly what she had to say, as if he knew she would need to hear that? It could be that the General did know he had to do that, afterall, the montage shows Louise teaching other people about the language, and the general says 'I don't know how your mind works' - so he could have known he had to tell her the specific words at that point.

Also, this is when she's only beginning to understand her powers, so maybe she's kind of a surrogate for the audience in not knowing. Although it makes you wonder at what points in non-linear time does she know about her power and what points does she not haha.
 
Also just found out that the director for Arrival is Denis Villeneuve. He directed Sicario which was also a slow burner that I immensely enjoyed. He's in the middle of filming the new Blade Runner next, so hopefully we'll get more of the same!
 
It was good. You had to be patient and understand this was NOT an action movie, but it was interesting and different.


The aliens were seriously weird looking too.
 
Man, I can't tell you guys how happy I am you all used spoilers!

With the further contributions to the thread, I want to see this more than ever! And appreciate it not being spoiled.

'Likes around', guys!
 
Chomsky said:
Man, I can't tell you guys how happy I am you all used spoilers!

With the further contributions to the thread, I want to see this more than ever! And appreciate it not being spoiled.

'Likes around', guys!
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Ever noticed we all tend to get along much better talking movies than politics? :D
 
Nilly said:
Yeah I think that comes down to a non-linear time thing lol. It is rather strange that the Chinese General told her exactly what she had to say, as if he knew she would need to hear that? It could be that the General did know he had to do that, afterall, the montage shows Louise teaching other people about the language, and the general says 'I don't know how your mind works' - so he could have known he had to tell her the specific words at that point.

Also, this is when she's only beginning to understand her powers, so maybe she's kind of a surrogate for the audience in not knowing. Although it makes you wonder at what points in non-linear time does she know about her power and what points does she not haha.
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True. That does, however, raise the question of why the aliens wasted so much time trying to communicate, when they could have simply looked into the future and gotten everything they needed to know.

I suppose you could say that they wanted to "test" us in some way. Even that, however, kind of falls apart when you realize that they should already know that we will pass.

Eh... But don't mind me. I'm just overthinking things, as per usual. :lol:

This movie was absolutely a step in the right direction for scfi and Hollywood as a whole. I certainly won't deny that.
 
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Gathomas88 said:
True. That does, however, raise the question of why the aliens wasted so much time trying to communicate, when they could have simply looked into the future and gotten everything they needed to know.

I suppose you could say that they wanted to "test" us in some way. Even that, however, kind of falls apart when you realize that they should already know that we will pass.

Eh... But don't mind me. I'm just overthinking things, as per usual. [emoji38]

This movie was absolutely a step in the right direction for scfi and Hollywood as a whole. I certainly won't deny that.
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Yeah you'd have thought that if an Alien race can perceive time non-linearly then what sort of issue could they realistically find themselves in where they need humanity to help them? (I'd assume that the humans in 3000 years time would perceive time non-linearly too). But I guess there's a reason that they left that vague, it's too hard of a question even for the writers to answer! Think that's fair though, we're answering questions in 2016 that we didn't even know to pose back in 1916. 3000 years is a long time (although thinking about it, that's not really a long time for a race that doesn't perceive time linearly???)

Maybe the aliens were doing the same thing as Louise was at the end. They were simultaneously 3000 years in the future and also in present day, and they could see their actions in the present effect the 3000 year future?

And yeah, movies that explore ideas are much more interesting than movies that simply explore events (even if they can be slow at times).
 
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