Engaging in the way it reaches for more, albeit without shaking off the superficial, and the standard "first contact" stuff (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2017)

Arrival sees first contact between aliens and humanity, as 12 large craft arrive at different points around the earth. In the US a translator is employed to try to help communicate with the aliens, but at the same time the military prepare for a worst case scenario.
Outside of the fuss over the poster error, and the hype about how great the film is, I finally got to watch it on its own merits. On the face of it, it is a solid piece of sci-fi delivered on a big scale. With this territory comes a lot that is very familiar, and a lot that doesn't totally make sense of fit with even the internal logic, however the film mostly manages to overcome these traps by having them while also making the film much smaller. It does this by latching onto the character of Banks and making it about her. The message that it delivers through this device is not as profound as it thinks it is; it still works and had an impact, but it does throw away a lot of ideas to get to the slightly sentimental heart of the matter.
It is Adams' performance that carries this. She sells her character at almost every stage, and as the film focuses on her it means that we go with the film. The supporting players provide plenty of familiar faces and a feeling of quality, but do not add as much as her. The high production values and effects mean nothing breaks the world- creation, and it makes it easy to go with.
In the end it is not this amazingly profound film that some will tell you it is, but it is still a solidly enjoyable sci-fi that has a lot within it, and even when it all comes down to a quite simple conclusion, it still works on those terms.