Arrival.

[Head Gardener]

Spoiler alert

it was OK

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I

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preferred

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the other Amy Adams film out at the mo though

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to be honest

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and she is

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so pretty

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lol

[checkoutgirl]

I can't wait to see this. If it's even half as bad as it looks I think I'm in for a treat.

[Head Gardener]

this old painting reminded me of the film, a bit

[brat-sampson]

Eh,

Spoiler alert

it all seemed a bit more paradoxical to me. At what point did she choose to have a kid? She started off having memories and visions of a child she'd never seen before, only to realise the truth after finally making 'full contact'. At that point she'd already seen that she would have a kid, and that the kid would die. She'd seen her whole future play out, including when she would tell her husband the truth, how he would react, all of it. From that point on she's simultaneously reacting in the moment at every stage while also knowing the inevitable consequences of all her actions. The part with the general really was closer to a paradox. She knew his number because she remembered it from the future where he gave it to her because he knew she had it in the past be cause she remembered him giving it to her in the...

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[checkoutgirl]

I haven't read any of the spoilers but I read that she had a kid that died on Wikipedia and I'm guessing the twist must be the aliens went back in time to get her kid or took her kid in the first place or some shit like that.

[WesterlyWinds]

I haven't read any of the spoilers but I read that she had a kid that died on Wikipedia and I'm guessing the twist must be the aliens went back in time to get her kid or took her kid in the first place or some shit like that.

You're wrong and a grotesquely ugly freak

[Glebe]

I haven't read any of the spoilers but I read that she had a kid that died on Wikipedia and I'm guessing the twist must be the aliens went back in time to get her kid or took her kid in the first place or some shit like that.

Spoilers, man!

[Serge]

The film's been out for four days, no spoilers here!

'Mawkish' was exactly the word I had in mind for the final ten minutes, along with 'manipulative' and 'complete shit'. Short of having someone leaning into shot and saying 'IT'S SO SAD, GEDDIT?' it couldn't have been more heavy-handed and in-your-face. I can kind of see why she'd choose to have a kid even knowing it would die young - any moments spent with a loved one are precious, and there would be happiness as well as misery - but I'm not sure I could have made the same choice knowing that future was going to happen. Also, it would have been nice for them to have had the balls to actually use the word 'cancer' rather than the vague and wishy-washy 'rare disease'.

If the aliens have 'future memories' of the next 3000 years, why haven't the fuckers bothered to pick up some basic human languages to make things easier at first contact? It was nice of Shang to have a future conversation with Louise that helpfully included all of the dialogue she'd need to convince him to change his mind, even though as far as he's concerned, it was a conversation he'd already had with her and probably wouldn't need repeating in full.

Amy Adams was good, despite playing an annoying character. I like Renner, but his role was pretty thankless. Forest Whittaker was pretty bad and Michael Stuhlbarg should have bigger and better roles than this!

There was more that annoyed me, but I've thankfully forgotten it right now.

[Glebe]

The film's been out for four days, no spoilers here!

Spoiler tags are always essential, Serge!

I'm confused... so many good reviews from trusted sources and people being moved to tears... but you're not the only one who wasn't all that impressed:

Blu-ray.com review.

Spoiler alert

...painfully contrived detour...

"Arrival" begins to feel uneven in its second half, less interested in creating a possible resolution to everything it introduces, resembling Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" in the way it goes beyond space and time to wow audiences. The feature weirdly doesn't become more interesting as it unfolds, it grows more distant and protracted, which has become a Villeneuve specialty. "Arrival" leaves more questions than answers, but what's more frustrating about the picture is how it doesn't seem to understand its greatest power doesn't come from riddles, but its characters, with the military and scientists eventually becoming secondary to a Big Idea that isn't satisfying. This is an artfully made effort, with a humdinger of an introduction, but once it becomes clear where it's headed, it becomes more about selling a trick than detailing a thrilling awakening.

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I admit I'm being a bit of a hypocrite about spoilers... I still haven't seen it, but I can never help scanning through reviews!

[Serge]

Spoiler tags are always essential, Serge!

No, no, no. Not in a thread specifically for a film on general release.

And as for that quote - the film doesn't leave you with 'more questions than answers' - nothing is left open or hanging at the end, the film is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is, there are no 'big ideas', it's schlock dressed up to make it appear deep and meaningful, but I didn't leave the cinema pondering any big questions, as it hadn't posed any that weren't immediately answered. It's a pile of crap.

[Glebe]

It's a pile of crap.

That's going on the poster!

[WesterlyWinds]

No, no, no. Not in a thread specifically for a film on general release.

And as for that quote - the film doesn't leave you with 'more questions than answers' - nothing is left open or hanging at the end, the film is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is, there are no 'big ideas', it's schlock dressed up to make it appear deep and meaningful, but I didn't leave the cinema pondering any big questions, as it hadn't posed any that weren't immediately answered. It's a pile of crap.

The only question I had at the end was 'where can I get a refund?!'

Am I right lads?!

[zomgmouse]

I just saw this and really loved it. Managed to have an impressive confluence of visual, emotional and intellectual. I thought all the stuff to do with the aliens was very cool in particular, design-wise.

Spoiler alert

Knuckle squids who communicate through gaseous coffee stains.

[close]

What's not to like?

There were moments when it threatened to get too Tree of Lifey sentimental but I felt it always either warranted its sentiment or pulled back at just the right moment. I did groan inwardly a bit at the

Spoiler alert

"It wasn't meeting the aliens it was you"

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line but I thought it was justified because

Spoiler alert

she knew her future and her decision was based on that, not the cheesy line

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.

The "twist" as such felt less to me like a twist and more like a piece of a puzzle had fallen into place when it clicked a little while before it was properly revealed, like it had unlocked a new way of seeing the film much like she unlocked a new way of seeing the world when she got immersed in the alien language.( Linguistically of course the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis on which this conceit is grounded has largely been disproven but hey they're aliens so it can be excused I guess.)

Very few recent films have captured my imagination as much as this has. Impressive in concept, scale and optimism.

[phes]

I'm with Serge on this one. Utter bilge from the very first line. A slapdash, childish mess, riddled with plot holes, mawkish and with only the occasional laugh thanks to the ill judged dialogue toward the end

F

[imitationleather]

Saw this today. Thought it was some weak ass shit. Like, proper terrible. I agree that it was similar in its failings to Gravity, but had none of the impressive "Oh my Lord this is visually too much I think I'm about to have a panic attack" element that one at least had to save it.

On the upside, it was only £2.50 on Meerkunt movies. Still wasted two hours of precious wanking time, though.

[Talulah, really!]

Spoiler alert

she was having flash forwards long before she even remotely understood their language. Is the insinuation there that just by looking at the symbology that she started to understand and therefore view time differently? If so, why didn't her bum chum also start having visions? Why was she uniquely sensitive to it? If it's a feature of language then surely it's accessible to all who use/understand the language.

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Remember she is 'narrating' the film, it is a story she is telling, so the point of view is fluid.

At heart, that is what I think the film is about, the telling of stories and it is full of subtle touches that reinforce that.

For instance, the heptapod language resembles the classic alchemist symbol of Ouroboros, the serpent that eats its own tail and (done in a distinctive black/white style suggesting the light and the dark) Louise in a way does eat her own tail/tale in both a temporal and narrative sense. We might note the meaning of the name Hannah or even consider the walk up/ascending a long dark tunnel into the light though the time might be spent more usefully thinking about the central question Louise is tasked with asking the aliens and how it relates to her. Though I'll also chuck in the visual foreshadowing of the little girl in her horse outfit - all those limbs.

On a slightly more solid ground I'll suggest the climatic Jeremy Renner line is an example of the 'Uncle Charles' principle as the critic Hugh Kenner named it, it's what that kind of character, a not particularly emotionally eloquent person striving to express his feelings and perhaps finding words not quite up to the task, would say in those circumstances, a line that sounds like something you'd get in a cliched movie looking to hit an emotional beat, an example of the art concealing the art.

Anyway, as you can probably guess, I'm in the totally loved crowd.

[zomgmouse]

Hey look everyone they learned the secret of experiencing time differently so they've already made a sequel... in 1998!!! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122961/

[Head Gardener]

a rare occasion when the album is better than the film



however in this case the film is better than the single

[Glebe]

Saw it today, but it's late and I have a headache so I'll do my review in due course.

[Noodle Lizard]

So is this shit or

[B Piper@The Gates Of Dawn]

So is this shit or

https://youtu.be/da3aIQOhOFY?t=26m37s

[phes]

https://youtu.be/da3aIQOhOFY?t=26m37s

Arrival doesn't make any sense. It's dumb and wretched, the misery of which is compounded by hearing praise from such a trusted source of recommendations. They've got this one wrong.

This review is more on the money

https://splicedpersonality.com/2016/11/17/arrival/

[BritishHobo]

General Shang's wife's last words are really fucking long.

[Serge]

This review is more on the money

https://splicedpersonality.com/2016/11/17/arrival/

Heh, and they even call it 'wank'. My kind of guys.

[chocky909]

Who doesn't love a good wank?

[Steven]

Who doesn't love a good wank?

THE LORD YOUR GOD JEHOVA.

[Chairman Yang]

Christ, could that review be trying any harder to hate the film? It's like being livid about lint, or shoelaces.

It's a solid OK. I'm a heartless hard sci fi nerd and I didn't mind the focus shifting from the Aliens to Amy Adams feelings half way through. If anything I thought the film was far too exposition heavy and needed to be more self indulgent and... alienating.

Although I'm apparently *in* the film so I can't be trusted.

[olliebean]

I quite liked it, right up until the hacky denouement when she

Spoiler alert

knew what to tell General Shang on the phone to change his mind because she remembered him in the future telling her what she told him that changed his mind.

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[Puce Moment]

Yeah, not a fan of this at all. Such a shame because I do love a nice, thoughtful, beautifully shot SF. And that is one of my problems with the film - the cinematography isn't even especially good and cannot make up for the shitty story. Renner's career is completely inexplicable to me, and his character was pointless. On the other hand you have the grossly underused Stuhlbarg who I kept expecting to suddenly do something of note. I hated the dialogue and the final half hour was just shit.

The aliens looked like human hands, which was just ridiculous. The only bit I liked was the dream sequence and that was only because the shot of the Hand in the room reminded me of Enemy - Villeneuve's only truly enjoyable film (IMO).

This is one of those films that I know I will never, ever see again.

[St_Eddie]

I went to the cinema to watch this earlier today and it's Interstellar all over again!  That is to say, a slightly above average science-fiction film which has received a crazy amount of hyperbole from critics.  I'm not fussed enough about the film to go into too much detail, so here are the salient points, from my point of view...

PROS
* A creepy and unsettling soundtrack.  This was probably my favourite element of the film.

* Decent acting across the board.

* The alien designs were interesting enough, if not spectacular or anything.

* A science-fiction movie which doesn't rely on an over abundance of explosions straight from the school of Michael Bay, which is a much welcome change of pace in this day and age.

* Some nice visual moments (namely the image of the spacecraft hovering above a large green field; the gravity defying tunnel and the aliens in their misty environment).

CONS
* The film has a dreary, bleak, grey look to it.  I found it visually dull and uninspiring on the whole, which I can't imagine bodes particularly well for Blade Runner 2049.

* The film really does just consist of a bunch of scientists going back and forth between their camp and an alien ship for the entire duration.  A bit of variety would have been nice.

* The way that a fair few critics have been lauding this film for being oh-so intelligent.  You know that Hollywood is in a sad state of affairs when a movie comes along and is applauded for being incredibly smart and intelligent, simply because it's not like 95% of other Hollywood movies and downright aggressively stupid.  Look, Arrival is a relitevely smart movie but come on...  2001: A Space Odyssey, it ain't.

* Whilst I was fairly indifferent to most of the film, the last few minutes pissed me off a little...

Spoiler alert

I'd already figured out that Ian was Louise's future husband during that rather effective shot of a blurred out, shadowy figure on the pier during the flash-forward at the end and I thought to myself 'ah, I like the way that the filmmakers haven't felt the need to spell it out for the audience because it's already clear enough that he's the husband'.  Then they go and show Ian's face and I thought 'oh, for fuck's sake!  They've ruined it!  Yes, I know movie, I'm not stupid, you know!'  Then they just keep going; OH LOOK, IAN IS LOUISE'S HUSBAND.  HAVE YOU GOT IT YET, DUMMIES IN THE AUDIENCE?!  LOOK, HERE'S THEIR CHILD!  IT WAS IAN AND LOUISE'S LITTLE GIRL THAT WE WERE SEEING EARLIER!  DO YOU UNDERSTAND?  NO?  OKAY, WELL THEN, HAVE A VOICE OVER FROM LOUISE EXPLAINING IT EVEN FURTHER...

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...That was the only bit which actively annoyed me and made me roll my eyes, which is a bit of a problem when it's the final few minutes of your film because it leaves things on a bit of a sour note, colouring one's opinion of the entire piece.

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All in all, like I said; slightly above average (and I do mean slightly).  Quite honestly, I feel no real desire to ever watch this film again.

6/10