BurtonReviews Arrival: Are We There Yet?

(Image sourced from https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/arrival/)

Denis Villeneuve’s (director of Prisoners and Sicario) next film, Arrival, has been shrouded in a fog of secrecy and intrigue. From the tantalising trailers, all you could get the sense of was that this film would be an intriguing and grounded take on Earth’s first contact with the great beyond. And oh boy did this film deliver on that suspicion and so much more.

(Video sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooQ3tmUl6-0)

 

Without giving too much away, as the trailers hardly gave us anything; Arrival documents the human race’s first contact with extra-terrestrial life through the eyes of linguistic expert Dr. Louise Banks, Amy Adams (the current Louis Lane of the DC Cinematic Universe), and her team of America’s best and brightest as they try and discover just why these aliens have come to our little slice of the universe.  

While you may be thinking the trope of first contact is completely overdone in the film industry and that nothing they do to this stereotypical sounding story can surprise you, let me tell you, Arrival will prove you sorely wrong. How this story plays out, the pacing of Louise’s history altering discoveries and the way the film makes you feel not only that the progression of knowledge about the alien race is believable, but you also feel like a part of this intellectual team at the forefront of what will become human history. You are engrossed in trying to solve the mystery of these aliens with the characters on screen, this not only fixates your attention to the big screen, but makes every win by the team feel like a win shared by you as you lose yourself in the tantalising mystique of the plot.

(Image sourced from https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/arrival/)

 

What helps hook you on the path to uncovering the secrets of this alien race is how fresh and completely new everything feels in this film. By now we have seen more alien encounters than we have had hot meals. But somehow Denis Villeneuve makes meeting this race of alien feel like it’s the first time you have ever seen anything unearthly. Your overwhelmed with both awe and terror as the characters, and vicariously through them you, come face to face with this new being, and that is an exhilarating feeling that has been lacking in many sci-fi films of late. Nothing in this film feels tried or overdone, every aspect, from the unique way the scientists get to the alien craft, to the aliens themselves and how they function, looks, operates and is executed not only in an innovative and mind bending way, but somehow in a believable and grounded one too, which only adds to the incredible level of immersion this film already achieves.

One aspect that helps suck you into this world and the hunt for the answers to these alien questions is the superb acting on show. Amy Adams does a great job leading the film, and the team of scientists into the great unknown as you empathise and really feel her struggle to answer the seemingly impossible. But it was actually Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye from the Avengers) that shined the most in this movie. His portrayal of physicist Ian Donnelly perfectly captured the awe and excitement that comes with meeting a whole new species of being for the first time, an awe that more than rubbed off on all of us in the audience. Renner adds just the right amount of ‘dork’ to the role that makes his character a loveable addition to the team instead of the horribly stereotypical science-geek it could have easily been.

(Image sourced from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/arrival-review-dazzling-science-fiction-that-will-leave-you-spee/)

Another superb addition to the movie is the use of sound and music in the film. The score of the film by Jóhann Jóhannsson helps give this film it’s uniquely alien feel, especially when paired up with the haunting sounds used to bring the aliens to life. He both precisely captures the other worldly atmosphere of being in the presence of these aliens, and also helps capture the heavy emotions of the film, especially in an impactful opening that is reminiscent of Pixar’s Up.   

Overall this movie is a mind-bending, refreshing, and captivating new take on Earth’s first contact with other worldly beings. The mystery is not only fascinating, but how it unravels makes you feel like a part of the team trying to discover its many intricacies and I was left flawed by how incredibly well Denis Villeneuve handled introducing us to a whole new kind of alien as he effectively conjured up both feelings of awe and terror in me again and again. You think you’ve seen all a story about meeting aliens for the first time can be, think again.

Arrival = 8/10

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Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.