Arrival: Needs More Invasion

Its no secret why movies like War of the Worlds, Independence Day, Mars Attacks!, They Live, and The Faculty were successful at the box office while movies like Contact, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Starman tended to fail commercially but managed to find critical acceptance: angry, hostile aliens are just more interesting. Sure, its nice to think that some intelligent life form would like to come forward and try to unite the world with a big handshake all around the planet so we can all sing about buying the world a Coke but, more likely, said encounter would probably end with the alien species realizing we're a bunch of violent, self-suppressed cavemen that would better serve the universe as its newest extinct species. With the always stale aliens-might-be-friendly snoozefest genre greeting its newest member with Arrival, I don't think Hollywood is yet ready to abandon that particularly obnoxious premise. We get to suffer for it.

To be nice, Arrival isn't a complete waste of time if you know how to approach it. As a serious, introspective movie about the need for international communication and peaceful coexistence and the usual neoliberal nonsense about making the world a better place through “kind acts”, it fits this bill very well. The whole plot, basically the mystery of encountering an alien race and trying to communicate with them via adapting and mixing our languages, is a clever premise with some interesting ideas about humanity that is complemented by great acting turns by both Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner (both of whom will probably be considered during the awards season) and some great sound mixing and visual effects. If this movie could have sold itself solely on its first act, this could have been a taut thriller with surprising turns that, mixed with its rather insane twist at the end, could have felt up there with 2001: Space Odyssey or Inception.

Unfortunately, while the movie is great as an introspective piece, it breaks Cardinal Rule #1: it's not actually fun to watch. It's not an action movie, any violence shown is portrayed at a distance via television monitors or over distant sound effects, the aliens are little more than giant hand people who like to talk in confusing symbols that only the most boring Symbologist in the world would find interesting and the whole plot can't keep from constantly going back to the age-old safe space of the crisis being due to “a lack of globalization”. I get it: the world would be a better place if everybody worked together and we just shared everything. But, if you're going to make a one hundred-plus minute movie extolling this virtue, you should at least make it entertaining before you start spouting your beliefs. Priorities, people!

As for watching it, do you need a nap? This is the first guaranteed cure for insomnia in the sci-fi genre since Jodie Foster tried to convince me she could pull it off in Contact, so go for it if that's what's ailing you. Do you prefer your science fiction interesting AND exciting? Search elsewhere.

Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) takes his introspective of humanities direction style into the science fiction realm with Arrival, a well-made, if mind numbingly boring, take on the whole first contact premise. When giant, black monoliths land on numerous points around the globe, language specialist Louise Banks (Adams) and astrophysicist Ian Donnely (Renner) must try to bridge the language gap between the two species before other human leaders decide to take preemptive action against the perceived alien threat. Along the way, you will learn interesting histories about language (the origin of Kangaroos) which are totally made up, spend long periods of time watching people stare at monitors and then have your mind messed with by a twist that is far too awesome for the boring movie that precedes it. Rent it in a few months, watch the first ten minutes and just fast forward to the last twenty. You might actually stay awake for that.

My score: 4/10. I guess the term “Oscar Worthy” really does mean “pretentious, boring and with no entertainment value based on the opinions of the masses who are expected to watch it”. Go figure.