Arrival

[Halon451]

Apologies if anyone has posted a thread on this movie already, but I have to say this is one of the most interesting and thoughtful sci-fi movies I've seen in a long time. I watched it at my girlfriend's dad's house a few weeks ago on his little 42" LCD TV (they are not big HT people lol) and liked it so much I picked it up for myself on 4k disc last week. I and a few of my closest film buff friends are having a screening at my house now that I've got my new HT system up and running the way it should and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it again, more properly this time!

The implications of this film hit me in waves days after watching it. Like most great sci-fi adventures involving strange aliens, it really becomes a movie about humans, specifically in this case it aims to demonstrate human capacity for understanding, fear and hostility when faced with the ultimate discovery. Other films surely have covered this broader topic, but hardly any quite so elegantly as this one, IMO. And it contains a very interesting twist that is only revealed towards the end.

The cinematography is simply stunning; the visuals tell a story all on their own and at least (I hope) that the soundtrack is just as good as the cinematography (was hard to tell on that little TV listening to just the TV speakers), but my system will surely let me know. The alien creatures are of an interesting design too... without trying to spoil anything it reminds me of an old Hawaiian legend.. it's a legend that states that the octopus as we know it didn't actually originate from earth. That the octopus is in fact a holdover life form from another dimension, stuck on earth and gifted with extraordinary intelligence. Just kind of a cool thing to tie in with this film if you've seen it and know what the aliens look like.

At any rate, I highly highly recommend this film! I am glad to see major production films with true substance beginning to emerge again!

 

[j_garcia]

I agree, amazing cinematography. The audio, though not constant, was VERY well done also. Really interesting story and one of the best of this year's nominees that I've watched. I will need to rewatch this one for sure. I personally did not find the story 100% compelling with this one those it is being being compared to: Contact and Close Encounters, though I really did like it and felt it was very well done. Excellent performances, absolutely worth a viewing or two because it is pretty thought provoking but I would have liked a little more meat to the story. It definitely required some time to digest afterward and I fully understand why it was nominated. One of the best Sci-fi I've seen in a while.

Abbot and Costello

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Search by title is your friend
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/the-arrival.104807/

 

[Halon451]

Search by title is your friend
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/the-arrival.104807/

Yeah I saw that one actually but didn't look like anyone had actually seen the movie yet in that thread lol

 

[Halon451]

I agree, amazing cinematography. The audio, though not constant, was VERY well done also. Really interesting story and one of the best of this year's nominees that I've watched. I will need to rewatch this one for sure. I personally did not find the story 100% compelling with this one those it is being being compared to: Contact and Close Encounters, though I really did like it and felt it was very well done. Excellent performances, absolutely worth a viewing or two because it is pretty thought provoking but I would have liked a little more meat to the story. It definitely required some time to digest afterward and I fully understand why it was nominated. One of the best Sci-fi I've seen in a while.

Abbot and Costello

The parallels to Close Encounters are obvious for sure, albeit carrying a noticeably darker undertone than CE of the 3rd Kind. I tend to think that the depiction of the human response in Arrival is a bit more realistic though; whereas in Close Encounters they took a very scientific and curious approach to the alien visitors, and in Arrival they did this at first but since they couldn't effectively communicate with them - eh blow 'em up. Sad to say, but I think it's one of the many downfalls of our species. We tend to destroy that which we do not understand. The implications that hit me later where when I realized the many parallels such a simple concept has in what we see going on today around us. I agree the main plot wasn't exactly complicated, but sometimes less is better IMO.

 

[Halon451]

Or less is more I meant to say... I think too much added complexity would have obfuscated the powerfully simple and elegant message they were trying to convey.

 

[j_garcia]

At no time did the aliens appear to present a threat though. Part of the point was that the aggression often begins as a result of cultural misunderstandings. I thought the overall story was very well presented. Interstellar comes to mind too, only this one was a lot better with the concept. I did spend a lot of time thinking about this one afterward. More often than not that means it was good lol.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... I tend to think that the depiction of the human response in Arrival is a bit more realistic though; ...

I haven't seen it yet but is in hand.
So, I would think a similar response as in Independence day, 20 years later, we shoot first and ask questions afterwards with the shoot down of that object that turned out to help us.

 

[Halon451]

I haven't seen it yet but is in hand.
So, I would think a similar response as in Independence day, 20 years later, we shoot first and ask questions afterwards with the shoot down of that object that turned out to help us.

Well the big difference here with Independence Day is that there was no ambiguity in the aliens' intentions in the first one when they started blowing up our cities lol.

Arrival has very little action in comparison, it's not that kind of popcorn sci-fi flick. Definitely one designed to make you think - again more on the human condition than on the aliens themselves. I think it's pretty easy to surmise we would retaliate in whatever limited capacity we could if a highly advanced alien species opened fire on our planet, but the big question is what do we do if we just don't know?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Well the big difference here with Independence Day is that there was no ambiguity in the aliens' intentions in the first one when they started blowing up our cities lol.

...

What I meant by ID 2 was when we shot down that ship that produced that round sphere.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Finally saw it with a a group of two families. Boy, we tried to understand the beginning of the move.
Help.

ps.
found it on the Internet. Good explanation.

 

[bruin62]

I must be missing something from this movie but I found it really boring

 

[Pogre]

I love this kind of physics-ey type stuff. Like how they don't perceive time in the same way we do. The past, present and future all exist simultaneously. We only experience it in one direction due to causality. I think. lol

 

[shadyJ]

We only experience it in one direction due to causality. I think. lol

I think that is a bit of a redundant statement. The arrow of time isn't a product of causality. Theoretically all of the processes that occur forward in time are able to occur in the reverse order, even if they are unlikely events, such as teacup shards reassembling themselves on the floor and flying up on the dining table as good as new. There is nothing that prohibits that event, at least at a quantum level. At least that is what I read in this book- great book, hugely informative and well worth reading, but not a light read.

 

[Halon451]

The concept of circular time seems to address the big question of infinity and what that actually means. I'm not a religious person by any means but for example referencing the Christian view that we will either spend eternity in hell or eternity in heaven; both of those ideas kind of freak me out when I think about it. There will never be an end to your existence... the idea that time is less linear and more circular adds a level of comfort to the concept of infinity, indicating that what has happened is equivalent to what will happen and vice versa; attempts to explain that infinity itself is a universal property that is essentially a looping mechanism and in our very brief moments here on earth we tend to see time as a linear event because of the tiny scale in which we experience it. It's the same as people's perceptions of the earth being flat hundreds of years ago because in their very narrow perspective all they see is flat land stretching out before them, but as we gained the ability to view our planet from a greater distance it became abundantly clear that earth is in fact spherical. It's a matter of perception. And ours may be quite limited in that regard.

Looks like an interesting read Shady J, I'll have to check it out.

 

[Pogre]

I think that is a bit of a redundant statement. The arrow of time isn't a product of causality. Theoretically all of the processes that occur forward in time are able to occur in the reverse order, even if they are unlikely events, such as teacup shards reassembling themselves on the floor and flying up on the dining table as good as new. There is nothing that prohibits that event, at least at a quantum level. At least that is what I read in this book- great book, hugely informative and well worth reading, but not a light read.

Nothing prohibits a blue whale from popping into existence in deep space out of nowhere, but it's not likely to happen. Though if we live in an infinite universe it's happened an infinite number of times.

I have a rudimentary grasp on some of this stuff. I remember reading something about causality and entropy being tied to the way we perceive time. It was a while ago so it's a little fuzzy for me.

 

[shadyJ]

The book explains that entropy is the key physical process that has a direction in time and is why we don't normally see things like shattered glass reassemble instead of the opposite.

 

[Pogre]

I will look out for that book. This kind of thing fascinates me. I think I know where I got the idea of causality and time and got my wires crossed.

I subscribe to that channel watch a lot of those videos.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I wonder how the aliens arrived at the 3000 years needing help from us? By understanding our linear time?
Spinning head.

 

[shadyJ]

I wonder how the aliens arrived at the 3000 years needing help from us? By understanding our linear time?
Spinning head.

Um, spoiler alert?