As everyone who has read some of my reviews should know, Denis Villeneuve is one of my favorite directors, I already wrote about several of his films, the fantastic Prisoners, to which I qualified with a score of 9 out of 10, and which is the review that more reward has been collected, almost the same as all the other together, I also talked about Enemy, rated with a score of 8 points, and Sicario that shares the same overall rating. Even though these films are different from each other, they have an element that unites them, and it is the genius of Denis Villeneuve. For that reason, today I decided to talk about Arrival, a film by the same director, which has left me satisfied.

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Year: 2016
Category: Science Fiction.
Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma.

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Plot

Suddenly, some spacecraft land on earth, which is why an elite team, selected by the government, and led by Louise Banks, is in charge of communicating with them. While the world is in danger, and a full-scale war can begin, Banks and his team try to find answers.

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Opinion

The plot can deceive some people, so I would like to make it clear that this movie is the same style as 2001: A Space Odyssey, or that Contact, those who hope to find a movie like Battleship or Independence Day here, will be disappointed. The proposal of the film is not, at all, explosions and overflowing special effects, but a more reflective product.

I have not had the good fortune to read Story of Your Life, which is the name of the book on which the script of the film is based, although I do know someone who has done it and, before watching the film, he wondered how the director would do to translate what written in the book to the screen. Unfortunately, I only got to see that person a couple of times more since then, and we did not have the opportunity to talk about it, so he could not tell if the film honored the book. After all, it is a difficult job to satisfy readers when they become spectators.

What I can say, is that the film deals with the extraterrestrial problem from a novel perspective and in a mature way, this is not about nuclear wars, the objective is not to show that humans have bigger balls than aliens, and that we can be more destructive, but quite the opposite.

In this film, it's more about science than about fiction. The film is realistic, emotional, and intense, getting the viewer to join a scenario where aliens come to earth with unknown intentions, allowing a process of not confrontation, but communication with them. Why did they come? Who are they? Where do they come from?

Under the scenario of uncertainty caused by the presence of aliens, the film tries to show us how each country will make its own decisions, and will have to deal, in its own way, with the whole problem. Some try to talk, while others want to go to a confrontation.

Dialogue with the opposite party, in this case, just like in real life, is the most difficult. So that they can ask a question to the aliens, they must first know how the aliens understand the time, then, somehow they have to make them understand that they want to refer to all of them in general, not to an individual, or even to know if they have a conception of the individual isolated from the collective. Later they must ask a question, and even try to convey and agree on the most basic concepts. Then, the viewer can see how to communicate, in fact, it is more difficult to face in a battle. In a way, it reminded me of the discovery of America.

The film manages a second narrative that initially seems to consist of flashbacks, but I will not talk about it, so as not to damage with one possible spoiler one of the most important turns of the film.

In general all the actors do their job well, however, everything revolves around the excellent performance of Amy Adams, which makes and transmits everything his character requires. Jeremy Renner, on the other hand, represents a scientist who is very happy and intrigued, since he can personally experience contact with aliens. The roles of Whitaker and Stuhlbarg are quite simple, but they are well acted.

Personally, the film seems exciting and intelligent, but I think I need to see it more than once in order to understand all the details. Good for me.

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Trailer