An Amazing Story Accompanied by Great Performances and Beautiful Shots

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2016)

Arrival follows Louise Banks, a linguist who is hired to try to communicate with the aliens who have recently landed on Earth.
This is a very interesting concept to me. Most science fiction involves a bunch of gunmen getting together and blowing the aliens back into space, or just hostile aliens killing humans. This is the exact opposite of that. Is the concept entirely original? I don't think so, but I haven't seen a movie like this before regardless.
The performances are quite fantastic. I've made a point of seeing more Amy Adams movies as of late, and I haven't been hugely impressed by her somewhat exaggerated way of acting. In Arrival she humanizes her performance a lot more. By that I mean she's a lot more subtle and realistically portrays this character, and she is absolutely amazing. This is the best performance I've seen from her. Jeremy Renner is also great, pulling off one of my favorite performances by him. Forest Whitaker, for what his role is, does a good job too. In fact, I don't recall a single weak performance. Not that every single one was amazing, but none of them were below average, and those that were important to the story far exceeded that.
The characters themselves are fleshed-out and largely well developed. Do we get to see every character's life and struggles and all that in detail? No. But Louise Banks is the most intriguing character, and she receives a hefty amount of attention. There's no reason for the other characters to receive as much attention as her because the movie's focus never averts it's attention to another character. The movie is entirely from her perspective, even when something more interesting is happening elsewhere, which allows the audience to be just that much more immersed into this story and, more specifically, this character.
The writing is amazing. I was a little worried to see that the writer of this film was so inexperienced, but it seems like Villeneuve and his well-picked cast knew exactly how to take this potentially bad script and make it look good. However, this script isn't bad by any means. The way the story unfolds is fascinating to watch, and as much as I wish I could watch every little detail of the human-alien interaction, I knew that it would get tedious, nor does the movie have nearly enough time to go that long. I think the movie showed just enough to keep the audience invested and learning along with the characters more or less. And the third act was mind- blowing. I've heard plenty of people say that the third act flips everything on it's head, but I didn't believe them. Trust me though, it will.
Right from the opening shot, this camera man proves he knows what he's doing. This is a beautifully shot movie. Not only is the scenery glorious, but the way the camera is positioned and where it's focus lands is all gorgeous. Every shot was a treat.
Upon seeing the first trailer, I was somewhat disappointed by the look of the aliens. I later learned that I wasn't. At all. I love the design of these aliens. I'm not going to say any more, but they look great.
One of my favorite things about this movie is the amount of detail put into the aliens. They are an entirely different species, and the movie goes all-out with that fact. Everything you wouldn't even consider that could be different between a human and an alien is taken into account and changed for the betterment of the film.
Another little thing I liked was the reveal of the alien ships. Yes, they are revealed on the cover of the movie, but the movie still tries to hide them. But it doesn't go all out with hiding them completely, but rather use strategic camera angles to obscure the entirely of the ship. So it doesn't come off as the movie trying it's hardest to hide the ship, but rather making it natural.
I almost had one tiny complaint with this movie, and that was the very end of it. Without any spoilers, I'll say that it didn't fit with the rest of the movie and came off as somewhat generic. And yet as I left the theater I realized that the scene made complete sense within the story. While I thought the movie had lost steam, in reality it kept chugging along at an amazing pace.
There were a few points along the way, more towards the end, that I didn't understand right away, but upon further thought realized what was going on and liked the movie even more for how clever it was. It's a thinking movie that isn't horribly complicated. It strikes that perfect balance, and I loved it.
Overall Arrival is spectacular. The acting, the story, the writing, the camera-work, the detail, the characters, the naturalism, the twist ending, everything is fantastic. Denis Villeneuve once again proves why he's my favorite director. This is quite likely my favorite movie of 2016, and hopefully an Oscar contender in the future. In the end I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this masterpiece of a film.