Arrival

Anyone who knows me or has ever read a single review of mine, knows that I absolutely love alien films. As a matter of fact, anything involving aliens, robots, or vampires has me in the theater opening weekend, kicking little kids to the side who are only there to see Ice Age 45. And yes, before you ask, I even saw one or two of those terrible Twilight films in the theater before throwing up at the thought of vegetarian vampires who glisten like diamonds in the daylight. No wonder why Trump got elected, our youth had never been exposed to a real life vampire until now!

I equate it to a video game nerd who grows up lusting after Lara Croft or idolizing films like True Romance and Sin City; once he goes to a strip club and actually sees a real life stripper for the first time, it’s over for him! As a young male, you know it’s probably not in your best interest to do so but you can’t help but want to make Levitra your girlfriend once those voluptuous c cups are in your face! You’ve never seen them in real life before and you kind of want to prolong the experience just to see where it goes. Well I can tell you from experience, it takes you straight to hell!!! I kid, I kid, I don’t care who the president is and I’ve never dated a stripper…for an extended period of time that is.

Well sadly I don’t think the majority of our youth has seen a real alien film either. Sure there have been a few decent flicks involving aliens that have come out in the past few years but they have both starred Tom Cruise (Edge of Tomorrow and Oblivion); and I’ve already talked about how I’m the only freak in the world that actually likes him. So this means that the majority of movie going America expects every invasion film to either be like Independence Day 2 or Men in Black 3. Damn you Will Smith!

This makes me sad because most of the people who are excited to see Arrival will walk out of the theater disappointed. If you don’t know who director Denis Villeneuva (Sicario, Prisoners) is, you should get to know him as he is probably the best director in Hollywood right now. Having said that, most of his films, while thought provoking, are pretty damn depressing. Well Arrival falls right in line with what he’s done in the past.

This film is an intellectual thriller that has you questioning not only everything that is happening in the film but humanity’s approach to life in general. Even when the film was over, I found myself in deep thought (a rarity, I know) over how I would process and utilize certain information if it was given to me at the right time. And that’s what this film is about. I’m not here to ruin anything for you by giving spoilers away but just know that you are not in for a J.J. Abrams production.

Even if Arrival was completely void of dialogue, I could’ve sat there and watched it for two hours anyway as it was basically a beautiful masterpiece. But this isn’t the 1930’s so thankfully there was some dialogue in it and this dialogue just so happened to be crux of the story. 12 alien pods have landed in seemingly random locations throughout the world and each country has brought in their best linguists and scientists to hopefully figure out why they have come to our world.

For the U.S., this includes Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Adams is a brilliant but sullen linguist who uses creative ways to communicate with the aliens. And as she begins to gain more ground with them, she starts to see and experience some pretty strange things. Well Renner seems to think that these happenings are just part of the territory when you learn a new language as your brain is now wired to think differently, but you can’t help but wonder if it’s more than that.

You won’t truly know how you feel about this movie until a few hours later after you’ve had the opportunity to marinate on it a bit. And to me, that’s the best kind of movie experience there is. I give an unbelievable amount of credit to Villeneuve for crafting yet another gem as I give Arrival a rating of pretty TIGHT!