Expected a not for everyone, avante-garde, thinking man's sci-fi, surprisingly got one of the dumbest scripts in recent memory

Rating: 3/10 (20 June 2017)

So this film does have some pluses. The acting, cinematography, pacing and editing are all pretty good. But it all gets sunk because the story makes absolutely no sense.
How anyone can call this film a masterpiece is beyond me. The concept is interesting but the execution is clichéd, sappy and nonsensical. There are so many plot holes with the ending. I get that the power given to Amy Adams' character by the aliens is more or less retroactive, meaning that she had it all along because it's beyond time itself. So she's had visions of a daughter she hasn't had yet. She doesn't think this is the least bit odd? And she hasn't had visions of anything else like the aliens coming down, or Jeremy Renner being the father? That's convenient... there's a great many contrivances but the biggest problem I have with this film is that it suggests that a vision of the future can create itself out of nothing and the fact that you've seen it lets you make the exact choices needed to fulfill it. I'm talking specifically about the scene where she calls the Chinese general which is an absolute paradox. Precognition can't allow you to see futures that couldn't possibly exist. And how would precognition help humanity unite or help the aliens whatsoever? There are a great many examples in popular fiction that show that knowledge of the future can be a curse rather than a blessing. And who would get the powers? Would governments decide? Would rival countries use precognitive powers to wage war with each other? Imagine a whole world full of people who could all see the future, it would be chaos.
Then there's the sappy melodrama, all the evil military guys pointing their guns at Amy Adams while she tries to save the poor aliens from being blown to smithereens, it just comes off as hugely clichéd that she's the only one doing the right thing while everyone else tries to hold her back, and by the way how did they know for sure they could even destroy the aliens? Wouldn't such an advanced race have some sort of defensive shielding? This is never mentioned. And what were they doing behind those glass walls for month anyhow? How were they sustaining themselves?
And what is the lesson to be learned at the end of the film? Humans don't really learn to co-operate and communicate better. She simply uses the power to cheat humanity's way to better foreign relations. So not only is it a cheat towards ideas of precognition, it cheats the entire premise of the movie away. And then she learns that maybe changing the future isn't for the best and that she should let it happen even if she knows it will end in pain? Isn't that against the premise as well? And what does her future with her husband and kid have to do with anything anyhow except to create a needlessly emotional ending? And then there's Jeremy Renner's line at the end: "Let's make a baby." Seriously?? This movie is an enormously pretentious pile. Do not waste your time.