Not sure how I feel about it

Rating: 5/10 (9 March 2017)

This is one of the few movies that made me scratch my head afterwards, trying to figure out if what I've just seen was to my liking or not. I still have no idea. In a way Arrival reminded me of Interstellar - a smart sci-fi flick with strong family drama woven in, and I liked that part of it. I also enjoyed that it commented more on the human race than focusing solely on aliens. I thought the twist in the end put a lot of things in perspective, and offered the viewer a chance to consider fate and choices. I also enjoy dabbling with linguistics, so a movie where I can basically nerd out for two hours is always welcome.
What I didn't like is the weak reasoning behind alien presence. Honestly, the question that Amy Adams kept asking them, What is your purpose, never really got a satisfactory answer. There are many crucial points that are left unexplained to the viewer, ie the scene with the Chinese general. Some of the messages in the movie, especially the one about "working together" were too cheesy for my tastes. The romance, and that was a bit turn off for me, was unfounded and inorganically introduced. We were sort of expected to believe that it happened, but no actual build up was created by the writers or the director.
Overall, an average for me.