When Independence Day meets Interstellar! (no spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2018)

I watched this movie because it was in my 2017 oscar highlights list and I gave it a try to see how it is. Arrival is directed by Denise Villeneuve who also directed Blade Runner 2049 (which I didn't like at all) and tells the story of a linguistic teacher who is hired by the military to try to communicate with the arrived aliens.
Honestly I was skeptical about this movie having watched Blade Runner 2049 some months ago and at the same time I was realistic and opened for this movie to maybe blow me away. I was constantly intrigued and amazed by this movie. This movie for me is without a doubt the best movie of 2016 along with Hacksaw Ridge. Is a very thoughtful movie with a very deep message that at the same time manages to surprise the viewer in ways that you couldn't even imagine. At the beginning I was intrigued by the concept of aliens arriving on earth and how would it be to try to communicate with them but the movie really took me in directions I didn't expect and rewarded my patience throughout the runtime. Let's start with Amy Adams' performance which was mesmerizing and one of her best in recent movies. She was calm relaxed and almost effortlessly pulled this character with so much depth and motivation. I can't understand why she wasn't nominated for an oscar. Emma Stone did not have a overwhelmingly better performance than Amy's considering the fact that Adams did this in a sci-fi movie and Emma did it in a musical. It is disturbing to see her too (after Matthew McConaughey for Interstellar) being robbed of a Oscar nomination in her case by Maryl who was probably nominated only for being a Hollywood legend like Denzel in the same year(because the next year she was nominated again). Next, the visuals are outstanding but compared to Jungle Book they couldn't match those. The score was great... a very haunting score that suited almost every scene. The story is absolutely fantastic. It reminded me a little about Interstellar's story and it kinda resembles to that in way. It has the emotional pump by the end just like Interstellar did and it also has twist and turns you wouldn't expect in a sci-fi like this. Another thing I liked was the realism in it. Just like in interstellar it starts with scientifical concepts and then takes turns and new directions that go in the sci-fi realm and actually surprised me a lot. There are also flashbacks which in the beginning seemed unnecessary but by the end went full-circle and had such a tremendous impact on me. No point trying to point out the directing and cinematography which are all fantastic. I have only two gripes with the movie and that is spoiler territory which I'll address bellow, but aside from that this movie is flawless and is so similar with Interstellar that for me is impossible to not like it and consider it one of the best sci-fi ever.
***SPOILER HERE***
So the thing that bothered me was that the movie never fully explained who were the aliens and why they'll need human help in 3000 years. The second and last thing that bothered me was that in the end the aliens and Louise were able to talk so easily with each other despite the fact that they spend more than half the time of the movie trying to learn each other's language.
***END OF SPOILERS***
Aside from that this movie is awesome and mind-blowing with fantastic performances and great story. It amazes me how this movie got nominated for best picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, production and sound and Interstellar didn't receive any nominations for cinematography, directing or motion picture since they are pretty much the same thematical movies. 10/10