Great Buildup But Fails to Arrive

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2016)

Arrival is not a bad film by any means. But in my opinion it is not great either. A watchable sci-fi flick (if you like the genre) worth a solid 7/10 (but no more)
It's nearly 2 hours long and just about kept my attention for the whole film (although I was ready to go at the end, and appeared to be the case for the rest of the audience.)
Visually it looks good and the film certainly built up suspense and audience expectations for the first 90 minutes. But after that I felt let down.
12 black block things arrive at random points on the earth.
Doors open in them every eighteen hours and people can go in and try to communicate with aliens.
The race is on for nations of the world to decipher the alien language and communicate. What are the Aliens intentions ?
We all wanted to know the answer to this.
Amy Adams is Dr Louise Banks a gifted linquist/translator brought in by the U.S. military to try and decipher communications from Aliens via the black block thingy hovering over Montana.
Where it gets a bit silly was how the military (led by Forest Whittaker) are Hollywood military stereotype stupid.
They bring in 'experts' but don't want to listen. Everything is a threat, if in doubt shoot it. The Chinese military have the same stereotype stupidity and intend to attack, supported by other countries.
SPOILER ALERT
What I found irritating was several aspects:
All through the film we are shown Louise Banks apparently having 'flashbacks'. She has a daughter and an unseen husband. Her daughter is born in flashbacks and you see parent/childhood memories 'flashbacks'. The daughter gets cancer and dies. Turns out she is dreaming of the future.
She even has flash forwards where she sees she phones the Chinese and stops them attacking. She knows the Chinese generals number and what his wife said on her death bed to convince him of the truth.
It doesn't actually explain how she got this number let alone knew the death bed speech in the first place. (The audience are clearly not expected to ask questions)
Louise Banks seems to be the great translator and has 'cracked' much of the alien symbols language.
However, the soldiers escorting the scientists into the Alien block each time seem remarkably stupid. So stupid and scared, they decided to place a time bomb in the black block thing 'to send a message' to the aliens.
Surely they would have vetted these soldiers more? (The audience are clearly not expected question stupid things)
Jeremy Renner plays a physicist who doesn't actually do very much. Other than be revealed as Louise Banks future husband who will leave her.
The film starts so well and then ends with Banks seeing the future and suddenly the world is 'saved'.
Banks realises she's going to marry Jenner and that he will leave her. They will have a daughter who will die of cancer. She decides to still start the doomed relationship anyway.
first 90 mins are good, last 30 mins are a crock of ...............