Arrival 0

[Gatsby77]

Saw it last night.

 

Surprised by how much I loved it.

 

As one review said, it basically accomplished what Interstellar *tried* to do, but ultimately somewhat botched in its execution.

 

Will see it again to share and discuss with other friends.

[fantastic_four]

not everyone gets the time-hopping ability because her husband is surprised by the daughter getting sick.

 

FYI it isn't anything to do with time-hopping or traveling, it's just access to memories. Just as when you are trying to figure out a problem you might suddenly remember a moment from your past that can help you. But yes, not everyone learns it fully enough (or tries to) to get to that level of perception.

 

 

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards" - The Queen of Hearts

 

Except that her "memory" was working forwards, too, so it wasn't memory and therefore had everything to do with time-hopping.

[fantastic_four]

The ending climax is sutle/subdued. No clapping and a pause of silence before everyone got up and quietly left. Not that it was bad, just don't expect Independence Day.

 

The last quarter of the film feels very rushed compared to the slowly-paced first three-quarters. Felt very summed-up, and it was fairly complex, so it wasn't surprising to me that everyone was silent at the end when I saw it too. I'm guessing 80% of the audience was thinking "it's ending NOW? WTF?" without understanding what happened--I was certainly in that camp. I didn't get a lot of the rapid, not-explicitly-explained events (how Renner was her kid's father and why did he leave her, how did she get General Shang's phone number or know what his wife told him, how did she jump from "we sort of understand their language" to "I now understand everything they say," why did they leave, what's happening in 3000 years, etc) at the end until about an hour or two later.

 

My major problem is that the simple statement that they needed our help in 3000 years was nowhere near enough detail to serve as a payoff for the question they spent the entire film trying to answer. I needed a BIT more than that for it to feel like a satisfyingly good explanation for why these guys were here.

 

But I liked it a LOT. I was mesmerized by the Terrence Malick-style cinematography. I found that to be an improvement on Malick himself who I find to be far too abstract to be enjoyable for an entire film. You can barely call what Malick does to be plot at all, and that's extremely difficult to follow, but the time-hopping sequences in Arrival were fantastic and didn't bulldoze the plot.

[Gatsby77]

not everyone gets the time-hopping ability because her husband is surprised by the daughter getting sick.

 

FYI it isn't anything to do with time-hopping or traveling, it's just access to memories. Just as when you are trying to figure out a problem you might suddenly remember a moment from your past that can help you. But yes, not everyone learns it fully enough (or tries to) to get to that level of perception.

 

 

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards" - The Queen of Hearts

 

Except that her "memory" was working forwards, too, so it wasn't memory and therefore had everything to do with time-hopping.

 

Disagree.

 

 

The film clearly established that, once she learned the language, she could access all of her life's memories at once, even the future "time-hopping ones."

 

They were all her memories because time is circular, without beginning or end.

 

So there was not "time-hopping," just memory access.

 

[Sauce Dog]

not everyone gets the time-hopping ability because her husband is surprised by the daughter getting sick.

 

FYI it isn't anything to do with time-hopping or traveling, it's just access to memories. Just as when you are trying to figure out a problem you might suddenly remember a moment from your past that can help you. But yes, not everyone learns it fully enough (or tries to) to get to that level of perception.

 

 

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards" - The Queen of Hearts

 

Except that her "memory" was working forwards, too, so it wasn't memory and therefore had everything to do with time-hopping.

 

Disagree.

 

 

The film clearly established that, once she learned the language, she could access all of her life's memories at once, even the future "time-hopping ones."

 

They were all her memories because time is circular, without beginning or end.

 

So there was not "time-hopping," just memory access.

 

Exactly! (hence my Alice in Wonderland quote about memory)

 

Also, good news: "Arrival/Blade Runner 2029 director Denis Villeneuve expressed an interest in directing a remake to Dune" GIVE IT TO HIM NOW!

Edited November 22, 2016 by Sauce Dog

[NewEnglandGothic]

One of my favorite movies of the year.

Four Stars!