The additions to the original short story water down this scifi experience

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2017)

This is the first Denis Villeneuve film I've actually liked, and it gives me hope for the upcoming Blade Runner 2049, which is a sequel for the 1982 classic. It's based on a short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, and the basic premise goes that twelve alien ships have arrived to Earth. Each has seemingly randomly chosen a spot on Earth to hover over and after a certain amount of time a door always opens, letting explorers in. The movie is told from the point of view of Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a world-class linguist, who's been tasked with communicating with the aliens.
On many levels it is an extremely refreshing science fiction experience. It focuses heavily on the protocols of first contact and the difficulties of trying to communicate with a new civilization that's so removed from our own as to make the task almost impossible. That might sound boring to some, but the film is anything but. Insert some unforeseen twists and difficulties, which I shall not spoil here, and we have a more than decent story in our hands.
It's also technically superb, as well as well-acted all around. The film looks absolutely fantastic, which has always been Villeneuve's strong suit, but in this he really pulled out all the stops. The first slow shot we get of the alien ship hovering above a misty valley is some of the finest visual cinema I've experienced in years. The whole film has this gritty realism applied to some pretty outlandish visuals and concepts, and it works beautifully. Also huge props for Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, playing the other scientist in charge of communications. Both are really talented actors, but the show absolutely goes to Adams.
Where the film unfortunately loses me a bit is in the additions made to the original short story. There was some military presence in the original as well, but here it has been brought into the spotlight, which doesn't make the film any stronger. The original concept and the original themes were already strong enough. Throwing in some inept criticism against redneck armed forces and strong arm negotiation tactics only takes our focus away from the main idea. The plot also moves around pretty clunkily. For example, there's this general mentioned early on in the film, seemingly casually in the background, but each and every member in the audience could instantly tell that he was going to return to screw something up. The film is full of moments like this, which also takes away from the central idea by pulling on our suspension of disbelief.
Nevertheless, despite its flaws, Arrival is a good scifi film. It had the potential to be a great one and there are definitely flashes of that greatness scattered throughout the film. Unfortunately the task of telling a coherent and structured story is where Villeneuve drops the ball a bit. Still very much worth a watch for all those looking for something new in the scifi genre.