Humanity looking forwards.

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2017)

When I watched this the first time I sought the original story. It was part of a short story collection by Ted Chiang called 'Stories of Your Life and Others'. It was the third story and as I write this I have just started it. The first story involves the building of the 'tower of Babylon' and how in ancient times man built a tower that reached Heaven so they could meet Yahweh (God). The second is about people being given an experimental drug that repairs damaged brains, the more damaged the better the outcome, leading to someone becoming 'superintelligent' and what he does with this. The stories lead to positive outcomes for humanity, as does this film. It is a 'soft' sci-fi film that deals with a first contact scenario. As usual the military are heavily involved from the start with their blinkered outlook and paranoid conclusions. It is up to linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to bring understanding and humanity to the fore. I am looking forward to the end of the original story as I am sure you will enjoy this version.