ARRIVAL

“Now that's a proper introduction.”

It seems that every year we are offered more and more alien invasion movies to watch on the big screen. Some are truly awful, some are actually pretty good. And then, every now and again, we’re given one that isn’t like the others. One that stands out above the rest. One that, like Arrival, takes the genre and turns it on it’s head.

Arrival tells the story of Dr. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, as she is bought onto a top-secret military project after twelve Alien ships touch down across the globe. Her job is to learn how to communicate with the extra-terrestrials, and figure out why they are on Earth.

And so begins a film, that unlike every other film ever made on the subject, doesn’t focus on Humanity’s daring final effort against the formidable Alien foe, but instead focuses on language, and how truly important it is. Admittedly, writing that out doesn’t make it sound like the fastest-paced plot going, and, to be fair, Arrival is not a fast paced film. Yes, it’s slow, but it wouldn’t work any other way. The plot is well thought through as doesn’t rush itself. It doesn’t need to. The scenes where Banks communicates with the ‘Heptapods’ aren’t thrilling and action-fuelled. They’re interesting, and they take their time to move the plot along. For the most part of the film, we learn the Alien language at the same speed as the characters, and that’s a very nice touch.

Learning a language like this takes time to learn, after all.

There are two other things the film does incredibly well, the first of which is the atmosphere it creates. Almost from the moment the film starts, the film feels very tense, and I think this is down partly to the soundtrack. It’s eerie, and almost always feels just a bit off. But having it a bit off for a two hour film builds up, and it works remarkably. Even in the scenes where you can’t see the Aliens or something else altogether is happening, the film feels strange, in the best way possible.

The second thing is the cinematography. Arrival isn’t a gleaming, CGI-filled blockbuster movie. Most of it takes place on foggy, murky days, and it very quickly creates the impression that you could look out the window and see this stuff unfolding. Even though it’s set in America, the main landscape of the film feels country-less, and it’s surprisingly immersive.

Moving beyond that, the shots used in the film, for the most part, almost border on genius. The full Alien form isn’t completely revealed to the end, and that stage-by-stage reveal makes the film even more tense as it unfolds. You never see too much of them, but just enough to be creeped out.

Kinda like Torchwood did with the Children of Earth episodes, but better.

Unfortunately, there is one weakness in the film, and that is the last twenty-ish minutes. For reasons unknown, the film seems to leave it’s language-based origins behind, and move into Inception-like territory. Not just that, but the reveal about the main characters didn’t really make any sense what-so-ever once I started to think about it, which is a shame, because had it been slightly more thought through, it would’ve worked great.

All in all, Arrival is a nice change for the Aliens coming to Earth genre. It doesn’t focus on war or near-extinction, but instead focuses on something we all know and use every day: Language. While the film is slightly let down by it’s third act, it won’t necessarily spoil the rest of the film, as well it shouldn’t. Arrival is great, the performances by the cast are near-superb, and it definitely feels like one of those films that will get better with age.