Not as clever as many reviews make it out to be

Rating: 7/10 (19 March 2017)

I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed with this movie. This was touted as one of the best and most intelligent sci-fi movies of the year, and it didn't quite live up to all that praise. It's not a bad movie though. The acting is solid, the directing, sound design and visuals are really good. But the story is kind of bland. For a movie that is all about communication, I thought it was a little bit odd that the most obvious way of communication (pictures) was completely ignored. The movie also depicts Russia and China as paranoid villains, while America of course saves the day. In light of history, this is hard to believe. It is also very difficult to believe that China, a country whose alphabet is literally a bunch of pictures, would not try to communicate with pictures, and instead is presented as the aggressor against the aliens. In the end, the climax of the movie is basically one big Deux Ex Machina, and that is a tough pill to swallow. Could they not have thought of a resolution that was a little bit more clever, and not the equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of a hat? The whole movie is about communication, so shouldn't the movie end with a break through in communication? So while this is not a bad movie, it's not a very good sci-fi movie. It needed a better script.