Clever and thought-provoking but a bit underwhelming and derivative

Rating: 7/10 (6 December 2016)

Aliens have landed on Earth, in 12 different locations. Language professor Louise Banks joins a US army team at one of the locations, in Montana. Her job is to try to learn the aliens' language and enable communication with them. Through regular meetings with two of the aliens she starts to compile a record of the aliens' "language" - a series of drawn symbols. The important question is - are they friend or foe? Other nations with alien landings are starting to view them as a threat, making it a race against time as war with the aliens could erupt at any moment.
Interesting, engaging drama. The concept of aliens arriving and how we deal with them, especially communicate with them, was well thought out. Could have been explored more thoroughly though.
The reason it isn't is that the movie takes a sharp detour towards the end. The aliens aren't ultimately the main story, something (or someone) else is. The detour is quite clever, and its point quite thought-provoking.
However, due to its late arrival, the second plot isn't explored much at all, just left as a profundity without much room for debate or development. This makes that theme feel a bit half-baked. This is exacerbated by the fact that it comes out of a storyline that had, until then, seemed unimportant and merely there as padding. So the profundity comes out of a story that you weren't that engaged with.
In addition, you feel blindsided by this twist. The focus is on and the engagement is with the alien story. When the ultimate theme comes along, the alien story quickly has to make way, making the ending to that feel rushed, contrived and a bit of a damp squib.
It also doesn't help that the plot feels a bit derivative, with movies like Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Interstellar springing quickly to mind.
Overall: intriguing and entertaining with a clever twist but a bit underwhelming, given its potential.