Arrival: The Best Alien Movie

Hello everyone, you know who I am, and you know who you are. Glad we’re on the same page. Any educated person with an imagination and an acknowledgement of science, is curious about aliens. Sure we’re constantly exploring space and coming up short, but the possibility of aliens in this universe is becoming more and more possible.

Films have capitalized on this idea since Georges Méliès said “Va te faire foutre, aliens on the moon.” and many writers have not shied away from the idea that we are not alone. Most films interpret aliens with horror, such as Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), or M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs (2002), and while these films focus on the Lovecraftian idea that human beings’ first reaction to foreign life is fear, other films develop a plotline rotating around what would realistically happen if the call was answered. Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival is one of those films.

Based on "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, Arrival is about a linguist and professor named Louise Banks (played by the amazing Amy Adams), who has suffered a life full of hardships, seen in an opening sequence even more tear-jerking than that of Pixar’s UP. Nevertheless, Banks is a renowned language specialist. She is called away from home after various alien contacts across the globe, and she is put under immense pressure to communicate with them, and decode their strange language, before the US and governments around the world use military tactics. With the help of supporting character Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Banks must complete this before detrimental events ensue. I would say more, but that wouldn’t quite be in the spirit of cinema to spoil everything now would it? Shame on you.

Denis Villeneuve’s direction is something to be marveled at here. The director wanted to make an “alien movie” for quite some time, but picked apart numerous ideas before landing on one centered around language. In a 2016 Vox interview, Villeneuve can be quoted as saying:

“What was interesting for me in that project was the playfulness of the idea of language changing your perception of reality. There's a link with cinema, with that. There's a lot of things that I was really deeply moved by in the story, and the politics [between world powers] of it all were more in the background. They were there to bring tension and to give a proper journey.”- David Villeneuve, Vox, Emily Todd VanDerWerff, 2016

Arrival hits many themes seen in a lot of alien films, like grief, loss, a gung-ho American military, and language barrier, with the latter making this film so unique. Western films of aliens making contact for no reason other than to conquer the universe have spoiled the simple fact that they wouldn’t likely do that at all. Any life form smart enough to achieve interstellar space travel has more likely lost the interest of war, and replaced it with the captivation of universal knowledge, and that’s exactly what’s presented in Arrival. With an intelligent premise, fantastic visuals, and stellar performances, Arrival is the alien film that will revive anyone’s burned out taste in science fiction. The feeling of watching this film feels just as inspiring as the readings of Carl Sagan, who gave our species hope that one day, we will discover something absolutely amazing in this cosmos. Maybe too, in this lifetime.

This film’s impact depends on the person. Many of Villeneuve’s films are esteemed by some, but disregarded by others, who find his pacing and direction boring and tiring. That being said, anyone with a shred of interest in what may be out in this galaxy should give this film a look. As of this article, it is still on shelves everywhere, and streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Of course, if you haven’t seen this film, watch it, and if you have, watch it again!

Overall rating: 9 heptapods out of 10