When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team - led by expert translator Louise Banks (Academy Award® nominee Amy Adams) – races against time to decipher their intent. As tensions mount between fearful governments, Banks discovers the aliens' true purpose and, to avert global war, takes a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity. Oscar® nominee Jeremy Renner and Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker co-star in this mesmerizing masterpiece with a mind-blowing ending.
Arrival
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5
5
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My review
Review from
Reviews
4.3
5,269 total
5 3,103
4 1,256
3 477
2 215
1 218
Bill Stamets
An outstanding sci-fi film with an intergalactic language lesson.
Brian Tallerico
A film that forces viewers to reconsider that which makes us truly human, and the impact of grief on that timeline of existence.
Dave Calhoun
Plenty of smart ideas and bravura visuals.
Stephanie Zacharek
Arrival gives us a lot to take in, and the picture is big, somber and grand, if in the end somewhat sterile.
David Rooney
Anchored by an internalized performance from Amy Adams rich in emotional depth, this is a grownup sci-fi drama that sustains fear and tension while striking affecting chords on love and loss.
Alonso Duralde
A fairly chilly, cerebral bit of business, from its beautifully tamped-down cinematography (by modern master Bradford Young) to Jóhann Jóhannsson's ethereal score.
Critic reviews
Brian Tallerico
A film that forces viewers to reconsider that which makes us truly human, and the impact of grief on that timeline of existence.
Stephanie Zacharek
Arrival gives us a lot to take in, and the picture is big, somber and grand, if in the end somewhat sterile.
David Rooney
Anchored by an internalized performance from Amy Adams rich in emotional depth, this is a grownup sci-fi drama that sustains fear and tension while striking affecting chords on love and loss.
Alonso Duralde
A fairly chilly, cerebral bit of business, from its beautifully tamped-down cinematography (by modern master Bradford Young) to Jóhann Jóhannsson's ethereal score.
User reviews
[Spoilers] This was an amazing film that forced me to consider the concept of non-liner time and challenged my base thoughts of time. Thia movie is both immersed in deep thought provoking concepts as well as emotionally impacting in terms of the characters and reflection on one's own life. There is a lot of potential for people not to be able to wrap their minds around the concepts this movie was trying to convey. If anyone comments about not knowing how Amy Adam's character can "see the future" or were they watching the future or the past, then they failed to conceptualize the idea of NON-LINER time. There is NO past, present, or future. Everything happens simultaneously. The future can come before the past. When General Shang tell her (18 mos after the current time) what happened in the past she didn't even remember or know what he was talking about. She knew nothing about a phone call or phone number. Previously she failed to translate Chinese, showing she doesnt know it well. When talking to the General later she spoke Chinese easily because she was repeating what she was hearing AT THE SAME TIME 18 mos later "in the future". Another example was how, in the present, she hears Ian say "zero sum game" and in the future she spoke instantly to answer her daughter "zero sum game" with surprise as to where if came from. Again, non-liner, the future and present is occurring simultaneously. If time is not a straight line, without direction or vector, then there is no such thing as past, present, or future. All events in her life are layered like pieces of glass stacked on top of each other, able to see from top to bottom or bottom to top at the same time. Like layers in a photoshop image.
The only way one could be surprised or awestruck by this disappointment, is if they had never watched a grocery store clerk struggle with a bar-code deformed by vacuumed packed meat. The film is torpid and humorless. The plot unfolds like a carpet being unrolled and in the doing reveals key information like so many graphics painted onto its surface. Ironically, as slow as the film is, there is still not nearly enough time to execute this densely woven heavily stippled plot. We cannot get to know the characters, so we are deprived of the opportunity care about them. The steps to solving the puzzle are presented through simple scene changes rather than dynamic discoveries. Big stories are always better told through an aggregate of smaller stories that we gather together in our minds.
So, full disclosure this may be one of my favorite movies of all time. It intertwines linguistics, a little bit of theoretical physics, and maybe my favorite topic, 'what happens with first contact.' The acting was excellent, cinematography spectacular, musical score interesting, plot will knock you away. However, I do feel they could have spent more time with character development. Really, the movie could have been another half hour and I think it would have felt more complete. As for the other negative reviews? I get the sense based on the chronic usage of "lack of action" and poor spelling that people went in expecting independence day and instead they got a well done cerebral film. If you're the type of person that thought transformers should have won an Oscar, this film isn't for you. If you're the type of person that appreciates good acting, subtlety and movie that makes you think? This is probably a good buy.
This movie in my opinion was great. It helps to show the basis for the attraction of all things, which boils down to love on a emotional and scientific level. It doesn't provided a bunch of scenes like movies such as interstellar that hold more of the physical/applicable side of science which involve sling shooting around a planet or something. But it gives a much need look at the psychology side of science. The main protagonist in the movie is shown a positive way to compromise between people of many differences through the love and the love driven experience she had with her future daughter. With a society where accepting one another and the pain/hurt someone has caused hasn't been fully embraced across the board this movie does a great job at pushing the point that only through the unity of all people can the human race reach its full potential.
Never rated a movie before but this one needs it! 1st off the videography was beautiful and slow, nothing sudden happens. Practically 0.09% action here. The storyline had so much potential, it starts off slow slash interesting and then she tries to communicate with the heptapods. The end. Thats just the beginning! During the beginning middle and end of the movie she wears a hopefully puzzled look on her face like she found something out but not really. She never had that clear ah ha moment and does anything about it. She has flashbacks in the beginning middle and end as well as flash forwards! Those flash backs weren't even important, they were just there. Then just flash flash flash around until you are impressed at how unimportantly confused you are. At the end i was waiting for that moment you always wait for in a movie, when they finally clear the air about what you just watched and the purpose of everyone's role and figure out if it's going to be a sequel or not. That moment never came. You're left high and dry wondering what M Night Shyamalan movie you could have watched instead. I must say that storyline fell flat on it's face in the second half hard. It flatlined at the 15min end, because she still trying to communicate with them, truth is There was no end. Its all a flash forward. And back again. So yeah I'm confused. 4 star scenery and unclimactic ambient music tho! It's a must watch because after reading this review you will see how truthful this review was and should have skipped the movie and this review altogether good luck. If any of your friends say lets watch Arrival, you then should say uh.. lets not!
Critics need to rewatch this poor cinematic attempt I don't know where to start. The movie in general was stale; lacking the heart and marvel that so many critics promised us. Many parts of the story we essentially unnecessary (i.e. bomb explosion in pod) and other parts were never explained (i.e. Amy Adams somehow can see into the future). The worst parts for me were the predictable moments (i.e. aliens are going to help us with world peace) and the juvenile dialogue. Oh, and wait, I couldn't get over how Amy Adams used a Surface tablet to talk to them.
It's like the film doesn't buy into its own fantasy. I have a huge issue with Jeremy Renner being a physicist in this. It would've made more sense to have him be an anthropologist. Where scientists should've been is swarming all over the background. Swabbing things, lasering, spectrometering. At the end of the day there is virtually no relationship building and then BAM he asks her if she wants to f.
I love science fiction. I love reading it. I love the creativity, and insight that it takes to create something that is foreign yet familiar. Sometimes we forget that we as viewers/readers consent to believe in things unreal. Its like magic. We know that it does not exist yet we are amazed at the result in the end. The better the illusion, the better the experience. It is a craft, like writing science fiction, or producing a science fiction film, to be convincing it better to be exacting in detail. If you have ever watched a bad trick, book, or film, having walked away cheated in some way, it is usually because you have. Its all in the details folks. This was not the case for this movie. For a film that could have taken many different paths, it stayed course throughout. It was well written, acted, and was tied together with just enough effects to not lose touch with the deeper undercurrent that drove the script from beginning to end . Its not a typical sci-fi flick. But that is what makes it the rare gem it is.
Reviews are BOGUS! This movie is HORRIBLE. Very Boring, Slow, an ANTI AMERICAN. ***Spoiler Alert*** Here is the entire movie...Aliens in jelly bean shape space ships land across the globe. Most of the movie is trying to learn how to communicate with them only to find out...The want to give us a Time Machine..yup a Time Machine. China was going to attack them, an then America was going to attack them cuz they thought it was a weapon. So...lmao...instead of the FEMALE AMERICAN SCIENTIST going to OUR PRESIDENT...LMAO...LMAO...she calls CHINA's President. An since America does what ever China says...we stop our attack, an China is the hero an saves the day, cuz our American female specialist called China an explained to them it was a TIME MACHINE. THE END. LOL!!!! How much did China pay Hollywood to make this movie??? I just saved you $4.
Interstellar-esque. I have learned to despise time travel movies, especially the more recent ones. Arrival at times cannot seem to decide what movie it wants to be but it has an overall feel of Interstellar with a touch of Slaughterhouse Five. Amy Adams is not exactly Bill Pilgrim even though Arrival seems to want us to believe that she is. Nor is she Ellie Arroway even though Arrival seems to want us to believe that she is her, too. I liked the idea of a "new kind of language" like the movie Contact introduced 20 years ago but I just don't believe that the "language" offered in Arrival could so easily and quickly be deciphered. And the time travel aspect only complicates it. Still, Arrival is a good movie and I do recommend folks see it at least one time. Rent first then buy if you want.
Fell asleep when i first bought this, re-watched the next night. Concluded that i really want my 15 bucks back! Like wth is this garbage attempt to pump way to much artsy fartsy into a three hour window. The reviewers need to have thier eyes or minds adjusted because there is no reason to have this movie exist. I cant express enough i want my 15 bucks back and why im forced ever more to pirate stuff after viewings like these, anticipated on watching this but given let downs like this. This movie spurred my wild hair to show for support to an industry with the expense of my hard earned money and failed to deliver. Now, the acting is well carried through, story line started ok and could have been extraordinary but dipped off and became stale. The twist that was promised fell short and gave us means to a very expressive "wtf!!" and begs to have my three hours of life given back to me. This is not interstellar or any newer scifi hit rolled together kind of feel, interstellar gave similar twist feel but CONVEYS ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC meaning for its conclusion. This movie gave up on trying to do that for a simple high school drama quality ending. Like wow time is a matter of perspective...seriously!?...so did the daughter actually exist? Like shes remembering but seeing it in a past-future type deal? O know shes doing a prequel-sequel day dream thing while in her present existence....lame. Save your money and time folks, i was highly anticipated to be highly let down, if i could i would delete it from my owned library to not look at it anymore.
Arrival opens with a gentle fusion of architecture, music and nature to set a somewhat melancholy mood. The story is developed from the perspective of a linguist (Amy Adams); given the size of its budget, time duration and its ambitious scope, this movie is a success. It gives the viewers an opportunity to contemplate their own lives in relation to other people and to the infinite. Who are we? Why are we here? How do we judge since no one has seen God? Is life worth living - given its tragedy or its beauty or both? Should we have children? Everyone have their own answers; this movie affirms the worthwhile aspects of life in spite of our differences and our general skepticism toward each other (e.g. among races and politics). The movie also hints the union of language (emotion) and science (method).
as a lifelong sci-fi fan, i find this film's accolades of "intellgence" and it's "thought-provoking" nature to be utterly insulting. villeneuve's direction is fine - but the source material isn't sci-fi. to my mind, this is not a story about intelligence. it's not a story that expands beyond human horizons. 'arrival' is no more than a sappy human interest drama in a sci-fi wrapper that verges on fraudulent. much like "midnight express" and "interstellar" before it, "arrival" seems more like a blatant, race-to-the-middle effort to make sci-fi more broad and general in appeal. the few fascinating and deep concepts touched upon are quickly and summarily dispensed with after a certain point, and replaced with inane, nonsensical rumination on "what it means to be human". utter rubbish. your mileage may vary.
This movie was the most breath-taking and beautifully crafted pile of hot garbage I have ever had the misfortune to lay my eyes upon. The pacing, cinematography, and some genuinely clever dialogue set the stage for existential statement that the uninspired plot points never allow to happen. I think I was made to be even more disappointing by all of the underutilized potential. Its one of those movies that you will be glad that you have seen, if not only for the fact that you won't have to watch it again.
This is a genuine cerebral science fiction. There are two bad words, one is the bomb right after a man stands back up from falling down flat while getting off the first lift up. Violence is seen from tv news clips. Otherwise Arrival would be a family movie. Downrated one star for the two language usages.
This just gave me a good filling of good feelings. It is also intellectual and spiritual if you catch the message of collective thought -it is both fair, and unfair, or: truth, a lie, bad, good, misguided, guided. I guessed that the 5 star reviews saw what I did (not all of them saw what i did), and the bad reviews saw quite nothing of the message of collective thought or the extreme way of looking at it, the connectivity of human thought. Physically humans connect by reading, seeing, another humans thought, action. This was about that complex network, except... Evolved (or in the process of evolving). It is also like déjà vu. Currently, science proves that we can travel to the future, and this movie stays true to that fact, we cannot travel back in time. When we wake up from sleep, time has passed (we are in the future of when we started to sleep), time has not been gained (which would mean traveling back in time). I hope this review helps others lost in the movie before they watch it.
This is *NOT* your typical space movie like most people are used to and drool themselves uncontrollably over. This movie forces you to think outside the box...A nice change ***FINALLY***. Doesn't follow the rest of those, waste of time movies...with no plot, no one cares kind of characters, where they just do "Whatever" just to get to the end . Forget about all the hyped up space explosions and idiot characters moving too fast to keep up with. This one tells an interesting story at a wonderful pace that gets you thinking, which movies nowadays absolutely miserably fail on, and rely only on cheap tricks like taking shortcuts on the storyline. Gets better at every watching. Definitely worth a purchase.
How is this movie a perfect 100% fresh rating? It's a disjointed, poorly lit, muddled bore of a tale. Anytime you start getting into movies like this one and Interstellar; in which time is the key cornerstone of the story, it just becomes too bizarre and confusing for me.
Not AT ALL what I expected. Incredible movie. This is one of those movies you cannot stop thinking about, I mean if you are the type of human to think about things like, well, pretty much anything that humans most often contemplate when we think on things ("things" like who are we, why are we here, what is time ...those "things") with any seriousness. This is the crazy thing about this movie though, you don't really get what you have just been immersed in until the end when you realize that the movie just revealed the most unexpected twist and yet "the twist," although essential to the story line is not the only thing you are thinking about in the last ten minutes. It is difficult to comment on a movie that works on such an emotional, intellectual, political, science fictional level and shot in such a beautiful way. Honestly, the minds behind this movie are truly talented people.
This is a pretty decent movie, storyline and all. It's not your normal "shoot 'em up" sci-fi like what you'd normally expect, but that's certainly OK; it's refreshing, actually. But then again, the movie is also pretty slow, with its overall feel being like drifting on a cloud (the beautiful cinematography adds to that feel). It is thought provoking as well, as it's certainly a movie you need to think through. But it's also slightly boring at times. The biggest highlight of this movie, though, is definitely how clean it is. There's barely any provocative language and the most intimate scene in the movie is when the two protagonists hug. Honestly, that's so refreshing in a world where perverseness in movies reign. So, if you're looking for something clean and sci-fi-like and thought-provoking, you should certainly check this one out.
Rotten tomatoes. Will never believe you again. This movie not only was blan. It was a complete waste of time. Did they pay you too give a good rating. You now remind me of old movie critic's. I won't name names. If you give a movie bad ratings I will watch it.
Very slow storytelling almost put me out. The there is so many concepts that they try to introduce which are great ideas jammed into what should have been 2 or 3 separate movies. Too many things confusing the plot. No humor , AT ALL! The characters don't get familiar with the audience at all.
Too slow paced to begin with, the end leaves you even more confused than you were at the beginning...not worth my money tbh. I understand the whole point of the movie is to send a message to humanity but come on, a little action would've made it more bearable to watch. Mostly it's about Amy trying to communicate with the aliens through signs and she has to decipher them in order to understand what they're trying to tell her. I kid you not, the whole movie is pretty much about that, I'm not sure how long the movie was but it sure felt like 2 hours...not worth the money.
Glad i didn't go to the theater to see this movie. I'm very disappointed in "Arrival". The attempt at infusing SciFi and symbolic melodrama was an epic fail. For me, this was the first SciFi movie where i actually wanted to stop seeing the Aliens. The characters are never developed and the scenes are all flat. I'm going to give it 2 stars because Amy Adams is in it although by no fault of her own her character is boring. The screenplay is as boring as the screenplay to 50 Shades of Grey. This movie keeps you waiting for the climax that never ever happens.
I have not seen this movie yet and I have been dying to see it. I will definitely watch it now because of the unfavorable reviews. I heard the same bad reviews for Starship Trooper and I am a fanatic about that movie. Thank you Nattering Nabobs of Negativity.
If you want action this is not your movie. If you want a movie that will actually make you think, you will be pleasantly surprised with this one. There's a lot of confusion and chaos, but once it clicks. You won't know whether to cry or smile.
Pretty nice concept overall. The plot was interesting and I believe the acting was great. However, the quality of the video and audio was terrible. I think it was probably something to do with the "artistic" endeavors, but that made it uncomfortable to try to watch it or listen to it comfortably. Too many scenes were dim and the music washed out the dialog. Maybe it's better if you have an expensive audio/video setup and a superbright monitor. But, on an aging LCD TV with simple stereo headphones, things could have been a LOT better.
Just a grossly overrated film. I'm a huge sci fi fan this movie is set up more like a thriller that never thrills. The movie theme was classic scifi but without any substance. I wish other scifi movies had this budget. This was a sleeper at best, luckily we just rented it. Don't believe the hype and dont waste your money like we did
So disappointed in this. Have you watched any of the trailers? Then save your $15, you have seen it. I get it, I know where they intend to take you....but do they really succeed in awing you...nope.
IF I COULD GIVE NO STAR I WOULD. WASTE OF MONEY. WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT MOVIE. IT IS JUST A LONG DISAPPOINTMENT!
Very well done movie. Don't let these bad reviews tell you otherwise. This movie had heart and sole and it kept me on the front of my seat waiting to see what happens. I can see how people can say it was slow but I felt that it was perfect. Other say it was flat out bad, I feel that 75% of those bad reviews are people who didn't understand what happened. It is a confusing movie so prepare to pay attention. You definetly can't be stupid in order to fully understand. Leave the room, YOU WILL BE LOST.
To give you an understanding of my taste of movies similar to this film: Star Wars Rogue One (6), The Notebook (7), The Martian (8), Interstellar (9), Inception (9) The people that rate this movie under 4 stars have no desire to watch complex and thought-provoking movies. They prefer CGI and shoot-em-up movies that they can drink in and dull their minds. This is the only movie I have ever watched on repeat in my entire life. Arrival (10) is a masterpiece that will make you wonder every time you have deja vu.
Characters lack depth, they Tarantino her flash backs to try to blow your mind that she knows her own fate, and then decide at the same time of she also have free will by changing it if she wants too, which is a paradox a not achievable. For a lack of action there should have been way more more dialogue so I actually have a damn about the characters. I give it 3 stars for some of the effects
It's very unique and not like your typical alien movie where aliens are taking over Earth and a fighting to save humanity. It's more sophisticated and makes you think a lot at the end. Very confusing, but fun to watch and the director did an amazing job making us assume and think one thing, when we were wrong the whole time. A must see movie that messes with your mind.
Non linear time... Give me a break! What that means to me... waste of time! Random nonsense which is what this movie truly is. Not what I was expecting from a movie with this much positive reviews. It's a slow, boring, almost pointless movie. I'm just glad I only paid $2.99. Nort worth even that much in my opinion. I was expecting something else... Sorry! Not for me. If there's a sequel it would probably make more sense if stuff actually happens...
I saw this in the theater and it truly is one of the most amazing movies ever made. The version I bought on Google play is missing a very key part. At 1:27 to 1:32 when Louise interacts with the Aliens it is missing the translation that is visible in the theater version. This is such a key part of the movie that it absolutely blows my mind that the studio would submit this edit when it is missing the translation. It is literally the most important part of the movie. If I didnt previously see the movie I would have been very confused and thought the movie was just average and quite confusing. I sure hope someone from the studio or Google sees this and fixes it. Be Mighty, Jayme from Mighty Mug
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I really liked this movie. I had not read any reviews prior to viewing it. Although I have read a bunch since viewing. This movie is not for everyone. Simple minded people will not understand the concept or message this movie conveys. Anyone interested in intellectual science movies or quantum physics and time travel will thoroughly enjoy this film. Though one needs to have a good understanding of what non-linier time is to understand and appreciate the film. If that is not you then I do not recommend this film for you. If that is you then sit back and enjoy this beautifully complex piece of cinematography. ✌❤🌎🌌
This film was over-hyped in my opinion. The cinematography is great. Its a great looking film. I like the occasional slow-burn sci Fi film, so this one flowed pretty well me, until towards the end when things seem a little thrown in to quickly get to a conclusion that I never felt fully connected to. It just didn't quite deliver it's point in a way that impacted me. A little disappointed...
I enjoyed the concept of interelating language and time, but then the film turned into the typical Hollywood twist by insulting military intelligence and capitalizing on the collective ego of the human species. Newer films that repeat the confidence of our military might against an unidentified intelligence species from the stars grows ever so tiresome. The movie had potential before the simultaneous sigh and eye rolling.
Review deleted
Additional information
Rotten Tomatoes® Score
4K
Available
Audio Language
English (Stereo, 5.1)
Subtitles
English
Rental Period
Start within 30 days, finish within 48 hours.
Info Cards
Enabled
Eligible for Family Library
Run time
116 minutes
Rating
PG-13