Film Review: "Arrival"
Film: Arrival (2016)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Studio: Paramount Pictures
LB Rating: 3/5 (old rating: 7/10)
Arrival (2016) tells the story of linguist Louise Banks as she uses her expertise to communicate with ominous aliens. Apparently, this film is based on a short novel entitled "Story of Your Life" written by Ted Chiang. I haven't read the short novel so I can't say how well the adaptation went nor how much of the film is attributed to the short novel. For now, I'll assume that the film's content is its own until I've read the short novel.
That being said, I think Arrival presents a very refreshing take on the alien narratives of the sci-fi genre. While most alien narratives focus on the damage and distress brought to humanity by the arrival of aliens, Arrival distinguishes itself by focusing on an actually very practical question: How do we humans talk to them? Arrival answered the question pretty well, making it the central theme to which story, and even the film structure (more on this later), revolves around. Let me talk about this central theme along with other notable points of the film in detail:
Central theme - I think that the theme of the film is the perspective on language as an identity, more so as a collective identity. (I'd love to expand on this for paragraphs and pages, but I'll do that in a different post; anyway, here's the short version:) Language reflects who a person is or at least who presents himself to be. For instance: if I play a lot of video games, I will have the tendency to use a lot of gaming terms such as "camping," "kill steal," and probably a lot of profanity. The gaming terms would then be understood by the gaming community, but not by those outside such community. In other words, gaming language is a reflection of the gaming lifestyle. There we see a crude view on how language is a collective identity. The film makes this a theme by applying this concept to the macro level: humans' languages as humanity's collective identity and aliens' language as the aliens' collective identity. The tension begins when the linguist Banks tries to connect these identities together, therefore she (Spoilers!) assumes the alien identity for a while and furthermore, live a bit of their four-dimensional lives.
I love this theme because it is a fresh perspective in the genre, it is introspective on how we use language, and it tweaked the film's structure in a very interesting way.
Non-linear structure - (Major spoilers ahead) The non-linear structure of the film is the cherry on top. The particular structure complimented the theme well. See, as the linguist experiences the identity of the aliens because she had understood their language, she also became subjected to their four-dimensional reality. The linguist experienced the aliens' perception of "time". The linguist began to experience time in a complex way, being in two points in time at once. This experience is expressed in the film's structure, wherein some future events are shown early in the film. Mind you, these juxtapositions were done very subtly, fooling viewers to thinking that everything was in chronological order--which is a great set up for the plot twist.
Pace - Arrival's pacing is the worst part of the film. It is meandering, always beating around the bush, and it takes its time to linger around unnecessary scenes. I guess it's supposed to paint an atmosphere, but I do not understand what atmosphere it is nor do I like the atmosphere it painted anyway. The slow pacing continuously stretched my patience as I maintain my interest with the film's theme and direction. Nevertheless, for more patient people than I am, the pacing shouldn't be much of a bother.
Etc - I appreciate the film's covert emphasis on the importance of diplomacy, which seems to be a fading practice from the current world. I also like the originality of the time travel mechanic in this film (linguist experiences time travel when she learned the alien language...that's pretty original). Finally, I like the film because it paints the relevance of anthrolinguistic lens in life.
All in all, the strong theme and the complimenting structure makes Arrival (2016) an intelligent film you shouldn't miss.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Studio: Paramount Pictures
LB Rating: 3/5 (old rating: 7/10)
Arrival (2016) tells the story of linguist Louise Banks as she uses her expertise to communicate with ominous aliens. Apparently, this film is based on a short novel entitled "Story of Your Life" written by Ted Chiang. I haven't read the short novel so I can't say how well the adaptation went nor how much of the film is attributed to the short novel. For now, I'll assume that the film's content is its own until I've read the short novel.
That being said, I think Arrival presents a very refreshing take on the alien narratives of the sci-fi genre. While most alien narratives focus on the damage and distress brought to humanity by the arrival of aliens, Arrival distinguishes itself by focusing on an actually very practical question: How do we humans talk to them? Arrival answered the question pretty well, making it the central theme to which story, and even the film structure (more on this later), revolves around. Let me talk about this central theme along with other notable points of the film in detail:
Central theme - I think that the theme of the film is the perspective on language as an identity, more so as a collective identity. (I'd love to expand on this for paragraphs and pages, but I'll do that in a different post; anyway, here's the short version:) Language reflects who a person is or at least who presents himself to be. For instance: if I play a lot of video games, I will have the tendency to use a lot of gaming terms such as "camping," "kill steal," and probably a lot of profanity. The gaming terms would then be understood by the gaming community, but not by those outside such community. In other words, gaming language is a reflection of the gaming lifestyle. There we see a crude view on how language is a collective identity. The film makes this a theme by applying this concept to the macro level: humans' languages as humanity's collective identity and aliens' language as the aliens' collective identity. The tension begins when the linguist Banks tries to connect these identities together, therefore she (Spoilers!) assumes the alien identity for a while and furthermore, live a bit of their four-dimensional lives.
I love this theme because it is a fresh perspective in the genre, it is introspective on how we use language, and it tweaked the film's structure in a very interesting way.
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| Arrival distinguishes itself [from most alien invasion sci-fi films] by focusing on an actually very practical question: How do we humans talk to them? (Image source: Google) |
Non-linear structure - (Major spoilers ahead) The non-linear structure of the film is the cherry on top. The particular structure complimented the theme well. See, as the linguist experiences the identity of the aliens because she had understood their language, she also became subjected to their four-dimensional reality. The linguist experienced the aliens' perception of "time". The linguist began to experience time in a complex way, being in two points in time at once. This experience is expressed in the film's structure, wherein some future events are shown early in the film. Mind you, these juxtapositions were done very subtly, fooling viewers to thinking that everything was in chronological order--which is a great set up for the plot twist.
Pace - Arrival's pacing is the worst part of the film. It is meandering, always beating around the bush, and it takes its time to linger around unnecessary scenes. I guess it's supposed to paint an atmosphere, but I do not understand what atmosphere it is nor do I like the atmosphere it painted anyway. The slow pacing continuously stretched my patience as I maintain my interest with the film's theme and direction. Nevertheless, for more patient people than I am, the pacing shouldn't be much of a bother.
Etc - I appreciate the film's covert emphasis on the importance of diplomacy, which seems to be a fading practice from the current world. I also like the originality of the time travel mechanic in this film (linguist experiences time travel when she learned the alien language...that's pretty original). Finally, I like the film because it paints the relevance of anthrolinguistic lens in life.
All in all, the strong theme and the complimenting structure makes Arrival (2016) an intelligent film you shouldn't miss.
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