A been-there-seen-that movie with substantial flaws

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2017)

This decade has made happen dozens of sci-fi movies with activities in a limited space and time, with slow pace and lengthy speculations about mankind's present and future. On the usual line, I am not into similar productions, but the reputation of the movie and it awards "urged" us in a group to pick the one in question.
We all watched the movie in full, but all of us had several misunderstandings and indistinct places solved only afterwards, when reading about its plot... Vague flashbacks, strange behavior of characters in clear situations, and settlements based on Western approaches made this a topsy-turvy watch, with trivial ending and naive conclusions. And as a linguist, I know that one is unable to figure out a totally different language/pictograph in a way we see in this movie. Bringing the Western wishful thinking into the minds of non-human aliens may flatter some part of respective audience, but it is neither scientific nor logical approach... And if the basics is totally odd, then the following events do not make any good sense, particularly when bearing in mind a sci-fi movie.
Therefore, for me, Arrival is above mediocrity due to the direction and leading performances only (Amy Adams as Louise Banks and Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber, above all). The overall concept is unreasoned and necessitates to refer to its plot description later on for some of its angles and ideas.