Film Arrival

These fecks has developed a language that transcends the fabric of time, do you think you guys might be able to accept that they can make their shitty spacecrafts disappear at will?
 
These fecks has developed a language that transcends the fabric of time, do you think you guys might be able to accept that they can make their shitty spacecrafts disappear at will?
Of course, I liked the film!
 
Of course, I liked the film!

I also liked it. Didn't see the twist coming tbf.

But somehow I couldn't connect to the whole human aspect of it, I appreciate that it was needed to tie the abillity of the aliens into a human context, but still it just didn't do it for me.

I do love these major scifi productions though, I love the whole imaginary part of it, and I think every boy that ever has stared up into the sky as a kid and wondered just have to love them.

I liked Interstellar more though, even though the whole thing with love being a force like gravity was awfully cheesy.
 
That's the beauty of films about fictional beings. You can do whatever and it's explained by the fact it's all fictional.

Ian with Vato, people seem to enjoy disliking things now, and love looking for plotholes and failures.

I enjoyed the film and it left me thinking. I like that. Some don't. That's fine.
 
That's the beauty of films about fictional beings. You can do whatever and it's explained by the fact it's all fictional.

Ian with Vato, people seem to enjoy disliking things now, and love looking for plotholes and failures.

I enjoyed the film and it left me thinking. I like that. Some don't. That's fine.

This is pretty much where I stand. I enjoyed it very much, and I'm not usually a sci-fi man.
 
I just watched it and it isn't that hard to grasp as I think is pretty simple and direct in what they're trying to convey. Some parts don't make much sense but as a whole it's a different approach to this type of film. Once they start talking about non-linear language and seeing how they write with circles you can already figure out most of the movie but still I think it's nice; anyway it's not more silly than communicating with aliens with music tones.
 
I liked it because it ticked both my boxes of sci-fi and existentialism.

Sure it could've spent more time exploring the idea of determinism vs free will but I think that was a by product of giving the film it's 'twist'.

The exploration of language was fascinating for me and how we might actually even begin to communicate with an alien race. And it was of course, gorgeous to look at.
 
I also liked it. Didn't see the twist coming tbf.

But somehow I couldn't connect to the whole human aspect of it, I appreciate that it was needed to tie the abillity of the aliens into a human context, but still it just didn't do it for me.

I do love these major scifi productions though, I love the whole imaginary part of it, and I think every boy that ever has stared up into the sky as a kid and wondered just have to love them.

I liked Interstellar more though, even though the whole thing with love being a force like gravity was awfully cheesy.

What is this twist of which people speak? I must have nodded off.

Good movie, but for me it didn't quite live up to its early promise. The fact that the entire plot hinged on the misinterpretation of a single world wasn't very credible. Surely a vastly superior alien species could have ensured their message was understood.

The aliens passivity was very odd. They had vitally important information to convey and yet were happy to sit in their spaceship and allow the inferior human species to do all the heavy lifting in establishing communication.

I also thought the human story line was a bit perfunctory and didn't have much resonance. And the politics was implausible. Any regime, however hot-headed, would surely think twice before picking a fight with an interstellar civilization.

Despite all that I enjoyed the movie. It concentrated on what for me is the heart of science fiction's appeal - the encounter with otherness.
 
What is this twist of which people speak? I must have nodded off.

Good movie, but for me it didn't quite live up to its early promise. The fact that the entire plot hinged on the misinterpretation of a single world wasn't very credible. Surely a vastly superior alien species could have ensured their message was understood.

The aliens passivity was very odd. They had vitally important information to convey and yet were happy to sit in their spaceship and allow the inferior human species to do all the heavy lifting in establishing communication.

I also thought the human story line was a bit perfunctory and didn't have much resonance. And the politics was implausible. Any regime, however hot-headed, would surely think twice before picking a fight with an interstellar civilization.

Despite all that I enjoyed the movie. It concentrated on what for me is the heart of science fiction's appeal - the encounter with otherness.
The twist was that the scenes at the beginning were the last ones, although it's improper to use those terms, as time in the movie is not linear. I think, technically, they're simultaneously the beginning and the end, as it is everything else in the story.

The aliens's passivity was without alternative. Their objective was to give the humans their language and thus enable them to perceive time and reality as they do - in a non-linear manner. The human species had to do the heavy lifting - there was no other way for them to learn it.
 
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I really enjoyed it. It took some questionable shortcuts but I usually don't have any trouble looking past them if I'm enjoying a movie. That shot where they first showed the alien ship in full, the camera floating around it from a distance with the mist flowing down from the hills, eerie music and everyting, was fantastic. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen.
 
The film muddies the waters a little on the passivity stuff, in the short story there's no self-interest angle and they seem to just be there to observe.
 
Surely a vastly superior alien species could have ensured their message was understood.

I dunno, I work with some vastly inferior people at work, and its hard a lot of the time to get them to understand simple messages.

That's the beauty of films about fictional beings. You can do whatever and it's explained by the fact it's all fictional.

Ian with Vato, people seem to enjoy disliking things now, and love looking for plotholes and failures.

I enjoyed the film and it left me thinking. I like that. Some don't. That's fine.

Yeah I agree this. Everybody seems to want to be a critic rather and going in with the attitude of finding things wrong rather than enjoying whats there.
 
Don't get the fuzz..
Me and my girlfriend both had this figured half way through..

Liked the atmo though..
 
The aliens's passivity was without alternative. Their objective was to give the humans their language and thus enable them to perceive time and reality as they do - in a non-linear manner. The human species had to do the heavy lifting - there was no other way for them to learn it.

Why did they come in the first place?

As I saw it, they came here from fecking billions of miles away, just rocked up all over the gaff, then we communicated with them, we learnt their language, and then they fecked off and nothing actually happened except that bird got rich and famous, and could see time as non linear...

What was the point of them coming?
 
Great film. I had to read a little on wiki after it was over but great film anyway. :D
 
Why did they come in the first place?

As I saw it, they came here from fecking billions of miles away, just rocked up all over the gaff, then we communicated with them, we learnt their language, and then they fecked off and nothing actually happened except that bird got rich and famous, and could see time as non linear...

What was the point of them coming?
They've come to give humanity their language because they know that in 3000 years they will need our help for something unspecified. One of the aliens explains it to the linguist when she enters the ship on her own.
 
They've come to give humanity their language because they know that in 3000 years they will need our help for something unspecified. One of the aliens explains it to the linguist when she enters the ship on her own.

Ah right, I must have missed that...

Bit long to wait though...humanity might have forgotten the language by then...
 
It's a disease they get, if I remember correctly. That was something they invented for the film, though.
 
I don´t get the hype regarding this movie.
Me and the missus got the plot 30 min in. So for me the ending and that stuff never build up.
 
Ok, no need to rub it in that we didn't get it!

Shit I forgot about that. Not intended..
Just really want to understand what people liked about it. A lot of my mates loved it but can´t really point it out what it was.
I love Sci-fi and waited for it and really wanted to like it.
 
Shit I forgot about that. Not intended..
Just really want to understand what people liked about it. A lot of my mates loved it but can´t really point it out what it was.
I love Sci-fi and waited for it and really wanted to like it.
I'm just yanking your chain!

I reckon when the twist hides in plain sight like that many will find it.
 
I'm just yanking your chain!

I reckon when the twist hides in plain sight like that many will find it.

It´s a bit like the 6th sense I guess?
It´s great if it amazes you but if it doesn´t it´s shit?
 
Sorry for bumping an old thread, but didn't want to start a new one.

Just watched it last night and I thought it was brilliant. Movie gets better when you read the interpretations people had and the realization of everything that's transpired. I wish more sci-fi movies took this route instead of the cliche Alien battles.
 
Sorry for bumping an old thread, but didn't want to start a new one.

Just watched it last night and I thought it was brilliant. Movie gets better when you read the interpretations people had and the realization of everything that's transpired. I wish more sci-fi movies took this route instead of the cliche Alien battles.

care to share any links for those interpretations? id like to have a gander. i enjoyed the film but wasn't blown away by it. I wouldn't mind rewatching it after reading some theories.
 
Figured out the twist a ways before it was revealed, but I still cried at the end anyhow. There's a certain mood to this film that just leaps from the screen and permeates your entire being. Fantastic filmmaking.
 
What a brilliant movie. Rewatched it just there.

One of my favorites and still up there in my top films of the genre. They just do such a phenomenal and job of creating a truly unique extraterrestrial experience unlike any other.
 
The moments about child loss are, to put it bluntly, both devastating but also therapeutic. The first scenes where she picks up her child are burned into my head because any parent knows how incredible that feeling is, and to be away from your kids is like cutting off a limb. It handled the subject sensitively and beautifully, in writing, tone, music and direction. Absolutely brilliant movie.
 
Denis Villenuve is directing Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke next (after Dune 2)
I'm really looking forward to that. The book is great and I think exactly the sort of thing that Villeneuve would be awesome in translating to film. It fits his current style perfectly. (Better than a romcom or small-scale drama, say.)
 
Denis Villenuve is directing Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke next (after Dune 2)

That's interesting. Fincher was attached to that one for years, I think it was a pet project of his.

Anyway, Arrival is a phenomenal film.
 
Probably the most overrated movie of the last 10 years.

And I generally love Villenueve's stuff