Part "Contact" Part "Interstellar"

Rating: 6/10 (13 November 2016)

It is very hard to find some new angle when it comes to Aliens. You leave it a director with a vision, top notch actors, and a decent budget. But it still depends on story, again what's the new angle? You may remember that "Contact" and "Interstellar" had a daughter who gets messages from outside our world. Both movies intertwine the daughters life experiences with the plot line. Now comes our protagonist's daughter, Hannah, who lives in the memories of Amy Adams, the mother. I instantly knew the flashbacks that show the daughter alive before her fatal disease at the beginning of this movie would be relevant later in the film. The main complaint is not the story so much as not enough layers that one would hope an intelligent looking film like this could portray. More layers, but not TOO many layers, like Interstellar was guilty of. It just felt like the second act, a threat of force against our visitors, was kept at a slow cook. Same with the slow revelations as communication with the aliens is developed.
Here is the good news. I complained a few years ago that in recent Hollywood movies aliens is aliens is aliens. In other words, there was nothing mystical (or scary) about the aliens after being depicted multiple times in multiple movies over time. Does anyone remember "The Arrival" with Charlie Sheen? That was 1996, the CGI aliens looked fake, and were nothing close to being scary. So credit Denis Villeneuve for taking care in making these aliens frightening. A suggestion I made in my review of "Cowboys and Aliens" is that they should make the aliens have some kind of supernatural influence on people, Twilight Zone freaky. The remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" gave the alien some control of a guy's brain waves. That was cool. Here the slow discovery of the alien's language has a nice twist to it, but the story has little else at that point.
I felt like saying to the filmmakers at that point in the second act, "Okay, something exciting better happen now". The threat of using force by a couple other countries gives some urgency in getting Amy Adams to find out the purpose of the aliens visit to Earth, which has been benevolent so far. Ominous music, and other hints seem to warn the audience that these aliens can overpower us puny humans. The supporting characters should be more substantial to help create some depth. Jeremy Renner for instance doesn't seem to have a lot to say, even though he supposedly is one the country's most brilliant scientists. Otherwise Amy Adams has no friends and has little to hang her emotions on.
So finally the third act tries to put it all together, slowly. I mention "Interstellar" because in that movie the daughter became the connection to the 'answer' in that movie. Without getting into spoilers, you may find the big resolution not very spectacular. I really enjoyed the idea that consciousness could evolve and advance our world after contact with aliens. It just doesn't resonate as much with such a simple and personal answer. I also mention "Contact", because the female protagonist develops her own special connection in deciphering the alien's language.
I have really been enjoying the smart and intelligent "Black Mirror" series of films. They are like an extended TV episode, where there is only room for a simple story, and can be explored fully in the shorter amount of time. Arrival probably would have been better as a "Black Mirror" episode, and the slower second half of the film tightened up as a result. I would ultimately recommend this film, with a warning this is not a special effects spectacular, but a more of a suspense film. The filmmakers successfully make these aliens feel dangerous that we don't really know the outcome.