Good Film, but Wastes the Original Material

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2017)

After 1400-odd reviews, I'm sure this has been said before, but I have to add my voice to the chorus. Arrival is a nice little SF thriller, well-filmed, nicely acted and brimming with atmosphere. But as an adaptation of the original short story upon which it was based, Ted Chiang's "The Story of Your Life," it's an utter travesty.
(I won't reveal much about either the film or the story, but there are some generalities that are worth stating.)
Villeneuve is a director whose work I've enjoyed and admired. And I can appreciate that there must have been enormous pressure to create a marketable film. Profit figures indicate that Villeneuve succeeded, by crafting a moody, modernized take on "The Day the Earth Stood Still." It's all a bit over-familiar, but well executed, and enlivened by beautiful digital imagery.
Unfortunately, financial success was achieved by throwing away absolutely everything that's truly worthwhile about the original story. I won't give away much, other than to point out that the change in titles tells it all. The short story is subjective, and it's not about the effect that alien Arrival has on Earth's politics or culture. It's about the aliens' effect, and particularly the effect of their language, on one person. And it's told very much from the point of view of that one person.
I enjoyed Arrival, but I was also massively disappointed that Villeneuve failed to deliver the movingly existential gem I was expecting, and which as a director he was amply capable of creating. If you haven't seen the film, I strongly recommend you read the story first. It's by far the greater of the two works, and deserves to be experienced without preconceptions.