Is the story too clever for my own good?

Rating: 5/10 (3 December 2016)

An opinion on a movie can depend on so many variable factors:

Have I seen a preview? Yes

Have I heard a review/opinions of others? Yes

Do I have a hangover? No

Have I just eaten a big dinner? Over 2 hours ago

Is the cinema full? No, just 3 people.

Is the cinema full of noise makers? For once no.

Are the screen and sound system big enough to immerse myself? It was a small auditorium, so not a large screen or sound system

And too many more factors to list.
The reason for mentioning them? Because one or more or all of them must have affected my enjoyment of this movie, because I thought it was OK, but nothing special - when it seems everyone else thinks it is a master piece. To be honest, I even closed my eyes on a couple of occasions. It suffered from taking a very short story and trying to stretch it into nearly 2 hours. Which naturally creates huge empty spaces which need to be filled with something more than just beautiful scenery or empty dialogue.
The language angle was good - the possibility of misinterpreting messages and intentions. But at no point did I sense any jeopardy from making any mistakes. Even if the humans attacked the "Aliens" where was the certainty that they would retaliate? There had been no previous show of aggression. In fact "jeopardy" was lacking in all interactions. We see a previous person being carted off after interacting with the aliens - what happened to him/her? When our guys interact with the aliens I sensed no risk or threat. So why the predecessor had to be carted off is beyond me.
And of course it committed the cliché of depicting America as the world's peace keeper, China as the world's aggressor and Russia as the brutal nation which executes one of their own.
And then there are plot holes:

Are we really expected to accept that these "aliens" suddenly arrived completely undetected in their approach, placed themselves in 12 apparently random locations (that happily included America) and then spent months in dialogue with lots of so called linguistic specialists, none of whom could have enough common sense to work together.

They came to us to give us a gift and yet made it almost impossible to communicate it? Surely if they had the power of foresight they would've known that communication was key and would have worked something out? And what will be happening in 3,000 years that we will help them out with?

Like I said in my summary, maybe it was too clever for me. Maybe I need to see it again to "get it". But frankly I have no desire to sit through it again.