Arrival is the story of Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist who’s daughter has died from cancer. She is a teacher at university and is recognised by the government as being one of the top in her field. She is asked to aid the government when twelve alien objects appear in spots around the world. It is Louise and Ian Donnelly’s (Jeremy Renner) task to communicate with the beings inside and find out why they have arrived on Earth. The film at first glance sounds like your average sci-fi blockbuster plot, aliens arrive and mankind has to find out why without the planet being destroyed. This film, however, is much different. Instead of giving you the same film we have seen countless times before it instead twists and changes as the film progresses. It is something familiar whilst also being vastly different to the rest of the films in its genre. It reminded me of seeing Inception for the first time and being blown away because I didn’t really know what to expect. The whole film is spot on from start to finish to the point where at the end of it you’ll wish the film was on repeat so you could watch it over again just to connect all the dots that the film lays out for you. The overall plot of the film is placed perfectly in order to disguise what is really going on. That is all I’ll say on that matter as I’m too scared of ruining it. As for the look of the film it looks beautiful and is shot incredibly well. It doesn’t look like other sci-fi films of today and is more in line with an indie film mixed with the original Star Wars trilogy with today’s special effects. The acting is perfect and the music hits every crucial part like a pinpoint landing on the the surface of every change of events within the plot. Overall I wouldn’t be surprised if the film was a contender in the Oscar race or even if it ended up winning as it is truly that good. It is refreshing to see a sci-fi film that actually ventures out into being something different and will leave you longing for more like it.
Expectation Level: Medium
Expectation Achieved
Score: 5/5 – Will definitely own on 4K UHD