Guiness Book of Records: Talking to Aliens for 90 minutes long

Rating: 6/10 (29 March 2018)

Those who believe in paranormal activity will enjoy this story about Amy Adams who is trying to talk to aliens that landed on earth. But when you are looking for some fast scifi action movie stay far far far away from this picture, because it is all dreamy paranormal talk with aliens. It is acted ok. The visuals and soundtrack are ok. All in all just a good sci fi flick, but not excellent.
What makes "Arrival" special is the suspense. Really good suspense I must admit, because the director does keep this story thrilling. In "Arrival" there is this big mystery that has to be unravelled of how to communicate with aliens. And Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are the scientists who have to fulfill this task. The different attempts to contact the aliens are portrayed in a fascinating claustrophobic tense atmosphere. Villeneuve also directed the new Blade Runner and he knows how to glue an audience to a screen even when not much is happening. Villeneuve has a great talent for creating a contineous suspenseful mood. A strange thing happened the day after I saw it. The scenes with Amy Adams encountering the aliens stayed in my mind the day after. Somehow director Villeneuve's claustrophobic mood lingered on even the next day.
In the end I felt the story was a little too much paranormal and a bit too sweet for my taste.But the suspenseful mood of the movie is impressive. It is a hit or miss depending on your preferences for paranormal stuff and how rational you analyse movies. Villeneuve's direction splits audiences in half, more so than any other director.However smart it is filmed and however suspenseful it stays, it becomes too irrational for my taste near the end, but I dont believe in paranormal stuff, maybe you do...
The message of love however is what makes this movie heartfelt and warm in the end. It's honestly a feelgood movie, but you must be the patient type and have a very open mind to paranormal stuff to be able to appreciate it.