Good

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2020)

Even when the story in "Arrival" (the alien invasion) has been seen many others times, from literature to film, it is the way how the story is told the reason why this movie excels. It can remind us to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or to "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", both movies directed by Steven Spielberg. These films care more about the encounter with the aliens instead of a war against them. In 'Arrival' the previous step to an eventual war is the work that linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and the theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) must do. I highlight this film for the atmosphere that creates with 'the arrival' and the patience it has to show the aliens or even their spaceship. It's until the moment Louise arrives to the camp that we can see the spaceship clearly and it's until the moment that she enters into it when we first meet the aliens. Well, this is because the story is about her, not about the invasion.
Maybe, the most outstanding of this movie is its use of the Kuleshov Effect, which is the different meaning that a sequence of images can have depending on its order. In the first scenes of "Arrival" we see the story of Louise and her daughter, Hannah, and how this latter grows until she gets sick and dies. The next scene is Louise getting to her job and being a little indifferent to the news of the "arrival". We see her and she looks sad and then, we get to know that she has a lonely life. Immediately, we relate this to the scenes we saw before (the story about Hannah) and we conclude that she was happy while her daughter was with her but, now that she passed away, Louise leads this sad life.
As the movie film goes on, we realize we're wrong, what we saw is correct but it hasn't happened yet, it will happen in the future. The story with her daughter Hannah doesn't happen yet and this life full of happiness is coming. This is the Kuleshov Effect. Even though I think this is the best of the movie, I think it loses its strength at the end and the resolution is not the best. I don't like the final o real encounter between Louise and the alien, or the revelation that Ian is her future husband. Another bad thing is that sometimes the movie is over explanatory and confusing on purpose.
In conclusion, this isn't a perfect movie and it's far away of being a memorable sci fi movie but it has very good approaches and in general terms is a good movie.