Arrival - A thinking man’s ‘Independence Day’

Oh, no – giant alien spaceships arrive on Earth and hover over every major city with disastrous (and most likely CGI-heavy) consequences!  Yes, we’ve seen this tired and strained plot for many decades (albeit the slightly older films relied on strings holding up the UFOs, but that was still pretty ‘high0-bidget’ at the time!).  However, in this case, the aliens actually don’t go straight into nuking every recognisable landmark they can find on Google Maps.  Instead, they actually try to have a chat.  However, just because they’ve left the White House in one piece, doesn’t mean things go smoothly.  Basically, they have a completely different language to us, therefore the American military enlist the help of a reclusive language specialist (Amy Adams) to help translate.

Naturally, there’s the obligatory ‘love interest’ for Adams.  This comes in the form of Jeremy Renner, who is likable for what he’s there for.  Forest Whittaker is always good at pretty much whatever he does, so he’s not out of place as the army general in charge of the operation.  

I knew this basic premise of before I sat down to watch the film and did wonder whether it was possible to string the entire film out for around two hours on this.  And, I’m pleased to say that it actually worked.  You see the alien ships land in various countries around the world and, although we obviously only really focus on America’s involvement with them, we get to hear about how other countries handle them.  ‘Arrival’ is one of those films where, in some ways, it’s very difficult to review.  If I give away too much it may spoil certain elements of the film.  If the basic premise interests you (and you’re not expecting wild aerial dogfights against waves of invading flying saucers) then you should definitely give it a go.  The film is basically a mystery.  You know the aliens are here for a reason, but you have to learn what it is at the same pace as the film’s characters.  And, if you don’t mind the wait, you should enjoy the slow burn.

I definitely enjoyed it, but, as I know the ending now, it does mean that it’s never going to be as mysterious the second time around.  I’d certainly go for a re-watch one day, but you’ll only ever get to see it for the first time once and be totally in the dark as to what the ending will entail.  Sorry I’m being a bit vague, but, if it interests you, the less you know the better.  Either way, at least it proves that you don’t need epic space battles or global destruction to make a movie interesting.  And this one even raises a few questions in terms of what one person perceives as ‘language’ may be totally different from another.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that