“Arrival” is yet another sci-fi film that flirts with the age-old concept of human contact with non-human intelligent life on Earth. “Arrival” stars Academy Award nominees Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker. Directed by Denis Villenueve, with a screenplay written by Eric Heisserer and based on a novella by Ted Chiang, “Arrival” tells the tale of Louise Banks (Adams), a depressed linguistics professor who becomes embroiled in a major world crisis when twelve U.F.Os appear out of nowhere across the world. Recruited by the U.S. Army, Banks is asked to translate the alien’s immensely inaudible language by the impatient Colonel Weber (Whitaker) to provide an answer to two pressing questions: why did they come, and what do they want?

The tension throughout the film is dense and thick, like a standoff. This time, the standoff is between the soldiers and the scientists. The governments of the world are on pins and needles, terrified of the aliens’ unknown intentions, and are looking for any reason to unleash hell upon the alien spacecrafts. The scientists, on the other hand, want to discern whether the aliens have come in peace or not. The tension culminates when American troops grow tired of playing the bench. That is when things go from manageably bad to straight-up bad.

“Arrival” paints and breathes life into a fine portrait of a world that is quick to rush to judgment and adopt extreme reactionary postures. It is almost as if Villeneuve is condemning humanity’s “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality. If he is, then he should be applauded just for that alone.

While all three stars contributed fair and equal parts of believability, it is Adams who wins out with her innocent Fox Mulder-like performance. The film itself is at times slow, and guilty of more than a few moments of borderline boredom and theater seat numbness. Those scenes are mostly when the science takes over via theoretical physicist Dr. Ian Donnelly (Renner). It still manages to keep its “payoff” factor, that build-up to when your senses burst once you realize the big picture. That factor is very much alive and well; it just takes a while for it to get there. Given the enormity of the subject matter and the concept, I suppose it only makes sense that we reach that point with less speed since we are, after all, only human.

Visually, “Arrival” is an extraordinarily daunting film. An innocent sense of otherworldliness is easily attainable when you sit through this film. It starts when Adams enters the “pod” for the first time, then heightens when the partially-veiled visage of the ultimate foreign visitors is finally exposed. Though it is not until we witness the echoes of the aliens and the presentation of their communicative ability through organic symbolic shapes that the sense comes full circle.

The way in which the film chose to depict the alien language is enough to make one appreciate the time and effort someone in some dark room somewhere put into creating such a language. And not only did they accomplish that, but they make it understandable to an audience with little to no knowledge of linguistics or symbolism. “Arrival,” unsurprisingly, is already rumored to be a serious contender for a multitude of Oscar nominations, especially in the Best Actress and technical categories.
We shall see if those rumors hold to be true come February of next year. In the meantime, if aliens, world panic, and a pretty redhead (or Renner as a scientist for those of you that prefer that sort of thing) sound like hours not wasted to you, then “Arrival” should be your next movie stop. Just brush up on your linguistics before you do.