And the point is?...

Rating: 6/10 (13 November 2016)

There are a lot of things I like about Arrival. Mainly, the way it tackles translation between its alien species and humanity. Films would usually gloss over that sort of thing but that's what Arrival focuses on most. The sci-fi stuff here, the non-linear communication, the way the humans slowly piece it together- that's clever. Humans face problems working it out, mainly countries like Russia and China not cooperating with the US and that adds more problems as those countries train their weapons on the alien ships. The ending, also, delivers a satisfying explanation to what it is the aliens are trying to communicate.
But it's also in the ending where Arrival breaks down. The film spends most of its runtime on the communication problems so you'd expect an amazing outcome. But you don't fully get that in Arrival. The ending is clever and moving but not enough so to justify spending an hour and a half building to it.