must see

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2017)

Henny's Movie Review: Arrival (NO SPOILERS)
In two words: MUST SEE.
Arrival was truly a welcome change in a time where mindless action movies reigned supreme. It is a good drama/scifi/mystery movie that will keep your attention from beginning to end (something most movies these days are struggling with). So why are you even reading this review? Really, go and watch this movie. You will not be disappointed, especially since "they have arrived".
The following will dissect the movie: Arrival, discuss the current movie industry and the art of film making. Don't worry I'll keep it all as concise as possible, however I do need to discuss all of the aforementioned topics since it is all related to the movie. The review will be divided into the following point:

First I'll give my opinion/dissatisfaction of the movie industry (i.e., Hollywood). - Second, I'll talk about movie as a visual medium - And third I'll review the movie (certain parts of the review are intertwined with the first and second points) this time I'll keep it a bit superficial to prevent spoilers.

Movies these days are often catered to the common denominator with studio executives, more often than not, deciding which path to take. This is understandable since it will most likely lead to more profit. However, depending on the choices made, these decisions can also ruin a movie. Furthermore, it is restricting the director and the rest of the cast and crew creatively. This is something that is happening too often in Hollywood (e.g., suicide squad, fan4stic), resulting in mindless action movies or movies that are afraid to take the extra step. Movies have become safe and this can be traced back to how they treat the intelligence of the audience. I often say that it is important to treat your audience as smart people whom understand more than less. This will lead to better stories and positively affect the progression of a movie (e.g., less explaining). With all that said Arrival doesn't suffer from studio interferences and most importantly treats the audience as intelligent people (more on this later in the review). I do have to admit though that I do like simple movies, they are harmless fun.
Movies are a visual medium that uses images to convey a story. Even though, this is basic knowledge we still have many movies that spend hours and hours on explaining things. This shouldn't be necessary if the movie uses the visual medium properly. I'm not saying that we can cut all the dialogues out of a movie; however I'm saying that if you treat your audience as intelligent people you won't need certain dialogues. Sometimes a simple, better yet, a good impactful image can say more than a thousand words. This is something that immediately jumps to my mind when I was watching Arrival. The dialogues are short and most of the events are conveyed through visuals (e.g., facial expressions, surroundings) and atmosphere. It is one thing to tell a story but when we watch a movie we want to see it.
Thank you for listening to the ramblings of an old man. Without further ado let's talk about Arrival.
Arrival is a movie directed by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. It is a well put together circa 2 hour movie that effectively uses imagery and atmosphere to convey the story and keep you intrigued.
The story (no spoilers): Arrival tells a story about a linguistics professor Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, whom is tasked to interpret an alien language when twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world. The story has a very good progression, there are no moments within the movie that dragged and throughout the narrative the movie knows where to put the focus. The atmosphere is very good and more importantly constant. It doesn't jump all over the place.
Characters: The movie has two main characters namely Professor Louise Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly (played by Jeremy Renner). Louise is the main protagonist/lead character and we discover everything together with her. Her development throughout this movie is interestingly confusing. Ian is there to support Louise with scientific questions and discoveries. His role is quite minor but important to an extent. I know this is all quite vague but the reason for this is to prevent spoilers.
Cinematography: The cinematography of Arrival isn't that spectacular. It has a grey/greenish color with a serious vibe throughout the movie. The alien spacecraft is interesting, but most of the time the movie takes place in an army base.
Three-Act-Structure: - Beginning, Strong with a good setup for things to come. - Middle, Good continuation of what was setup with a short moment for everything to sink in. - End, Strong ending.
Music: It did a good job to set to mood but other than that it isn't really noteworthy (shame).
Summary/conclusion: As you can tell I really liked this movie. It was something I really needed especially since I've seen many B quality movies lately (also talking about you INFERNO). Arrival doesn't hold your hand throughout the movie and it assumes you have a basic understanding of science. I liked this because other movies would've used a part of the movie to explain every scientific theory. I would love to go into more detail about this movie especially the pros and cons, but that would spoil the movie. So I apologies for this superficial review and I promise I'll do better next time. The movie is called Arrival and it truly has. Finally a must watch movie has arrived.
I give this movie a: 8.5