A unique Sci-Fi film that embarks on humanity, yet sadly doesn't do so with much thrill

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2016)

I was very excited to see this film and in the end I was quite pleased, but kind of let down by how little action took place throughout the 2 hour run time. The movie is based on a linguist is hired to decipher an alien language to find out why there here. To those of you who still haven't seen the movie I would stop reading because then what will follow will spoil the entirety of the movie. Throughout the movie there are several hints of how the flashbacks shown in the beginning of the movie are actually things that would happen in the future after the aliens had already arrived. The sense of how time was not linear when reading the aliens language was quite confusing but really did make the film quite unique as a sci-fi. For me what stunned me were the amazing visual effects of the creepy-octopus-like aliens and also the space ships. What still amazes me after watching it is how the aliens ships dissipates in the clouds at the end of the film. What let me down though was the lack of action. Throughout the entire movie I was anticipating some action but in the end I was left kind of bored. From the trailer I did expect some action such as the explosion and the helicopters firing at the ship but in the end there was close to 0 action, so if you cant stand watching films without action I would not recommend. The only sort-of action within the 2h was an explosion, which lasted about 5 seconds.
Brief summary (for those who skim read)
+ The Idea behind time and how reading the aliens language makes a person perceive it as a non-linear variable.
+ The Visual effects are stunning and do satisfy Sci-Fi fans such as myself
+ flashbacks are heartfelt and bring together the pieces that left many baffled throughout the film.
+ well-acted

Lack of action