ARRIVAL: Nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture - NO SPOILERS PLEASE

[TwiceOver]

Thanks. Just as dumb as I was thinking. I need to revise my review to a solid 5/10 now.

 

[purbeast0]

Watched it last night and enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the cinematography and the sound/music in this movie, it really will test your system. It was definitely slow and I was somewhat bored about an hour in, but that is right when things started to happen. Then I really enjoyed how it played out and the ending of the movie. I dunno, it really made me think as well after the fact and the fact that I'm still thinking about it right now makes me think it's a pretty good movie.

I also liked their take on aliens in the sense that they didn't look humanoid at all and were completely out there, and I liked that they didn't just come and destroy the earth as typical alien movies go. The whole gravity thing in the space ships was completely trippy too, I liked that touch.

 

[JEDI]

Spoiler: Stuff

Disregard the 'flashbacks' at the beginning which were intended to lead you to believe it happened in the past (child dying), as that is actually one of those movie 'thing happens! find out why!' moments (it actually takes place later). Through learning the language of the aliens, she learns to think as they do, which is non-linearly. She starts 'remembering' events that haven't happened yet, aka seeing the future. It's a dubious concept but they tailored it off the theory that you learn to think a certain way as you learn a language. I presumed that she truly 'understood' the language vs just 'learning the words' as her cohort did (which is why he couldn't see the future). All of the later events revolved around this. I can explain specifics if needed but that should cover it.

but wouldn't this be terribly destructive to the human race even if a fraction of the population would get it?

how does this help human kind?

 

[Rifter]

just bought the blu ray, will watch this weekend, im excited.

 

[zerocool84]

I didn't enjoy the ending, it was too sappy of a ending for me.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

but wouldn't this be terribly destructive to the human race even if a fraction of the population would get it?

how does this help human kind?

I think the point is, upon learning the 'truth', humanity kind of transcends it's current form (in a greater whole). So the 'destructive' qualities wouldn't matter. Or something. It wasn't terribly well thought out imo.

 

[Linux23]

I was knocked out during the first hour and a half. My girl seemed to enjoy it though.

 

[Eug]

Saw it again on Blu-ray last night. Definitely the drab image style was reflected in the Blu-ray. Very clear of course, but not a good demo disc for colour.

Saw La La Land on the weekend. Arrival IMO is a better movie than La La Land. I want to see something other than La La Land win the Oscar for Best Picture, even if it isn't Arrival. La La Land was irritating in that was far too much an "incestuous" Hollywood movie. It seems to me to be a movie built specifically for Hollywood types since it revels in everything Hollywood and caters to the starving artist types. Arrival and other movies had much more substance to them IMO. And I still think Amy Adams was robbed of a Best Actress nomination. The whole movie sat on Amy Adams' shoulders. That said, Emma Stone deserved her Best Actress nomination in La La Land. Although the movie had its problems and annoying aspects, Emma Stone's performance in it was excellent.

BTW, Arrival finally crossed the $100 million domestic mark earlier this week. Also, it has almost $97 million foreign now, so a grand total of just under $197 million worldwide. Not sure if it will make it to $200 million worldwide though. I'm guessing not.

 

[SKORPI0]

Winner - Best Sound Editing - Sylvain Bellemare

 

[purbeast0]

The sound in the movie was incredible on my surround sound.

 

[Eug]

Winner - Best Sound Editing - Sylvain Bellemare

It looks like my prediction of one to two Oscar wins is going to come true. It will probably just be this one, and definitely won't be more than two.

I'm guessing La La Land will take Best Picture (unfortunately), but Moonlight has a decent chance. Arrival not so much.

BTW, if it does turn out to be one Oscar, that's the same as Suicide Squad.

The sound in the movie was incredible on my surround sound.

The DTS-HD: MA audio track was decent, but Arrival is also not a good demo disc for sound either IMO, just like it isn't a good demo disc for colour.

 

[Paratus]

Matt Damon just tried to trip Kimmel.

 

[brainhulk]

How is it a far more advanced species is not able to learn our written language, but we learn their non-linear language in a couple of days? yeah riiight

i think they modeled the alien writing from pictures of eclipses

 

[SKORPI0]

How is it a far more advanced species is not able to learn our written language, but we learn their non-linear language in a couple of days? yeah riiight

i think they modeled the alien writing from pictures of eclipses

I was thinking it was this, a negative image.

 

[purbeast0]

I was thinking more of this thing called a "circle".

 

[IBMer]

How is it a far more advanced species is not able to learn our written language, but we learn their non-linear language in a couple of days? yeah riiight

i think they modeled the alien writing from pictures of eclipses

The point was for us to learn their language as it changes the way our mind works.

 

[cbrunny]

The point was for us to learn their language as it changes the way our mind works.

which is a premise that is more groan-worthy than when it was revealed that Wesley Crusher can stop time and travel through dimensions, because reasons.

 

[Eug]

Re: Last couple of posts:

Put spoilers in spoiler tags please.

 

[SKORPI0]

Amazing the "aliens" have names. Abbott and Costello.

Non-Linear Orthography. No forward or backward direction. No correlation between what the Heptapods says and what the Heptapods writes.

Interesting article.... https://www.newscientist.com/articl...nd-the-twisting-alien-linguistics-of-arrival/

 

[Mandres]

but wouldn't this be terribly destructive to the human race even if a fraction of the population would get it?

how does this help human kind?

This is one place where the movie diverged from the short story. The concept of "the gift for humanity" that motivated the aliens was completely under-developed and not explained well.

In the story, the aliens had no motive - they just appeared and then disappeared. They weren't trying to teach humans or give any gifts.

 

[ImpulsE69]

How is it a far more advanced species is not able to learn our written language, but we learn their non-linear language in a couple of days? yeah riiight

i think they modeled the alien writing from pictures of eclipses

I always thought it was based on the First We Feast logo:

 

[ImpulsE69]

This is one place where the movie diverged from the short story. The concept of "the gift for humanity" that motivated the aliens was completely under-developed and not explained well.

In the story, the aliens had no motive - they just appeared and then disappeared. They weren't trying to teach humans or give any gifts.

Spoiler

Actually, that is not entirely true. They wanted use to learn non-linearity, and in return they wanted us to help them 3000 years in the future. They never went into why they would need our help.

 

[local]

I watched it a week ago and really liked it until the end. I was almost expecting Bill and Ted to pop out and start playing the time game.

 

[Fritzo]

Liked the story until the ending, where it just got stupid. I hate movies that build up a rich and detailed world, then suddenly ruin it in the last 30 minutes trying to throw in a non-nonsensical twist.

 

[Eug]

Seriously guys, it isn't that hard use the spoiler tag.