I finally arrive to my conclusion. This movie is thought-provoking, however parts of it was indeed lifeless and slow. It was a good movie, but not great.

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2016)

If we ever meet an advance race of aliens, we're going to have to explain why we've made thousands of movies of us fighting and killing them. Hopefully, they could see films like this, instead. It presents battle and war as last resorts, with only frightened, desperate people looking to violence as a solution. Directed by Denis Villenuve and written by Eric Heisserer, based on the short story "Story of Your Life" by author Ted Chiang. The film tells the story of a linguistics expert, Louise Banks (Amy Adams) struggles to make first contact with extraterrestrial who arrive on earth, while as well, dealing with the death of her child. Without spoiling the movie, too much, like 1997's 'Contact' & 1977's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', this film is a deeply thoughtful sci-fi thriller about trying to communicate & understand with aliens rather than trying to fight them. Because of that, it teaches the message of being compassion and discovery, very well. There's also a message about time and choices that's better shown in the movie rather than ever explained here. Nevertheless, I will try to give you some scoop of some exposition. The film deals with Sapir–Whorf hypothesis or Whorfianism, a concept that linguistics and cognitive science believe in that states people perceive things differently depending on the language, we chose to learn and the culture in which, it is spoken. Sadly, the movie doesn't provide, many scenes of that, besides the 'use weapon' part. Also the film linguistics lecture exposition is not that compelling compare to the other previous films dealing with this, because it doesn't allow the learning scenes to be somewhat fun to watch. Every character's mood was dreary and morose. Every line delivered was monotone and monotonous. Don't get me wrong, I get that if aliens arrived, everybody on Earth would be scare of the unknown, but after a month or two of the aliens, not attacking you; you would think these people would lighten up. After all, the creatures are allowing you to speak to them, and you're learning more about them. One of the few things that I did not like about this film was the forced catalyst of xenophobia that was only there to move the plot along. I really hate how the film portray the Chinese as the unstable country, willing to go to war, because of a misunderstanding, with the aliens; when in reality, it's most likely us, Americans, because English is far more complex language to commutate with the aliens than Chinese. The reason, why I say this, is because China uses more ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbols to convey information yet were probably devoid of direct linguistic content. In theory, China should be more advance with their language, than us. Plus, if anything, alien arrival, would probably make human beings would probably be more unite than divide. While, Amy Adams plays a very strong, smart and intelligent female lead character. I found her to be, somewhat boring and too emotionless at times. Even the supporting characters like theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) & Colonel Weber (Forest Whittaker) were somewhat dull. All Ian really does, is exist to be a love-interest. His theoretical physics barely helps the plot, along, when it should. I would had tune out from the film, if it wasn't for, the curiosity of alien language. However, the film's alien language just doesn't add up, no matter how you put it. Being able to tell and work with time is a very valuable skill, but order to tell time, there are several key points to remember. Math is the universal language. The idea that the 'heptapods' don't know basic math, is hard to believe. It's not that possible to have advance society without such systems. In the short story, it's physics, instead of mathematics that the 'heptapods' don't get. It makes more sense, there, because they live in a world of Fermat's principle. Yet, in the film version, the language acts more like spiritualism than science. Despite that, I do have to say, I like the look of the creature. After all, the 'heptapods' species remind me of something out of 2003's animal documentary 'the Future is Wild', which states out that squids are the next sapient life on the planet Earth after human beings leave. I'm hoping that it is, where the filmmakers got the idea. I also like the look of their spaceships. Remind me of the Monolith from Arthur C. Clarke's 'Space Odyssey' series of novels and films. Even the way, the craft is curve, appears to look like a giant hematite birthstone. Terrestrial hematite is typically a mineral formed in aqueous environments or by aqueous alteration, hints my squid theory. I like that is, drawing from the 1970s trippy smart sci-fi tradition, both in cinematography and music. However, I don't like that the film is drawing the plot out. Because of that, it made the movie feel very slow paced. It takes forever, to get anywhere. I think the reason, why this movie is so successful is because of the emotional parental guilt twist. It's actually really impressive, even if it's somewhat confusing with all the time paradoxes. Overall: It is a cerebral movie that will challenge your thinking. I would say it's a good movie, but maybe falls a little short from great.