Arrival

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Being an adult kinda sucks - I so wish I had more time to spend with my family.

But work is looming and reality a-beckoning.

Arrival was one of those films where we saw the trailer before watching another film and though it might be good.

It was certainly a different take on an alien film. Most have a tonne of action thrown in with the threat of their invasion.

But this one was different. Good different as well, mostly.

I say mostly because the ending threw me off a bit. I don't want to spoil anything but there is a twist that just hurts my head to think about.

Adeel had kind of made sense of it at the time with a random explanation (not that he understood his own explanation, aha) but after five minutes of thinking about it, I was baffled again.

Amy Adams was wonderful. She was charming and innocent and relatable. Her backstory was heartbreaking (definitely tugs at those heartstrings early on!) but her development was great. Although the ending was weird, it was also sweet and I could see how her character would progress.

Jeremy Renner was also good. It was interesting to see him play something other than a superhero (is Hawkeye a superhero? I can never tell these days). His character was intelligent and hardworking and determined. I loved the way his and Amy Adams's character worked together.

The setting - and even the tone of the movie - was quite bleak and eery, but not in a bad way. It just had a kind of calmness about it which makes a difference from all the full on action you see these days.

There was definitely tension in it though when the small group of humans made contact with the aliens - you didn't quite know what they wanted or if they were there to hurt them or not.

I loved the special effects, they were really neat and captivating. I especially loved how the aliens communicated and found it fascinating to watch Adams and Renner's characters decipher the language.

On a side note, Forest Whitaker is also very good as the military colonel. He's fierce and is quite tough in this character, but I think he's a great actor.

Don't let the ending put you off, it's rather an intriguing film and one I would probably watch again.

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Rating:
★★★★☆