Arrival

TL;DR: 9/10. Nice science fiction movie about the importance of clear communication and mutual understanding in the context of learning a language. Drama & love substory included.

The movie tells the aliens’ arrival story, but it’s not your typical “aliens” invasion. Twelve extraterrestrial spaceships arrive at a set of distant locations across the globe and are just sitting hovering there. Of course, the government agencies of the “host” countries are closing territories for an investigation. The story centered around an expert linguist researcher Louise Banks who is invited to establish meaningful contact with the newcomers. And it turns out to be a life-changing, perception-shuttering, moving-to-the-new-step-of-evolution contact for both humankind and our heroine. There is a love substory (of course!), it doesn’t take too much attention on itself and feels reasonably natural.

On the other hand, I haven’t been able to help but notice a few cliches and was sometimes feeling that something is missing or going wrong. It can be a candidate for a CinemaSins episode (actually, there is one). But there is nothing you (I :-)) can’t forgive.

I like the mood of the movie.

Being a person captivated by the vastness of space, I like that it’s a story about aliens.

I like that it’s a story about languages, how they affect how you think and perceive the world. After all, this is one of the reasons I’m learning foreign languages and writing this blog - to expand my horizons by improving my English.

I like that it’s a story about a terminological misunderstanding, which is often the reason for disagreement between humans — an important and valuable question to remind yourself about.

Overall, I recommend the movie. At the very beginning, it creates a very distinctive atmosphere and properly develops it during the following hours.