I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
The rule is simple: if uts by Denis Villeneuve, YOU WATCH IT
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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Really is a good view.
I know that I enjoyed this movie but I don't remember it at all. Yay, I get to watch it again like it's new.
Me rewatching a movie:
"Oh yeah, I remember this part..."
"Oh yeah, I remember this part..."
I didnβt know how it was going to end, at any point during the movie.
Thatβs a good thing
Yeah, genuinely one of my favourite original sci-fi movies I've watched in the last decade. I did a linguistics course in high school so just really loved that side of it. It also really felt like they did a great job building the tension and making it feel like there were high stakes to her work.
It's not original, though it expands on Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life".
I suppose you are going to tell everyone that Dune was based on a book the next time someone compliments the pacing and direction of that movie?
The poster art for Arrival says it's based on a story by Ted Chiang, it isn't some secret nobody knows but you.
What does being original or not have anything to do with what the original commenter wrote? MOST movies are based on previously existing stories. They were focusing on the movie. If you read the book and want to show everyone how much more you know than they do, it would be more impressive if you had said "i read the story the movie was based on, and comparatively, ". It might have even made for an interesting and productive comment.
genuinely one of my favourite original sci-fi movies I've watched in the last decade
π
I had no idea what I was watching when I sat down in the theater. My friend had bought the ticket and I just showed up. I didn't know ANYTHING.
One of the best experiences of my life and it turned me into a Denis Villeneuve super fan.
Same. I'm skeptical of most newer movies given all the rehashes and sequels. The presentation of the aliens had me shaking a little bit!
Loved the movie! Such a great concept and so elegantly made. But the tagged on love story kind of took me out of it. Could almost hear the producers pushing that love story for wider audience appeal.
It happens in the short story too.
The producers got to the book too!?
No okay did not know that. So maybe my problem is with the general need to put love stories into stories. Or maybe it was written better in the book? Might have to read the book now
The original short story is called Story of your life, as from the point of view of Banks narrating it to her daughter.
No love story, no daughter, no Story of your life.
I suppose you could still have a story about aliens, and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and bootstrap paradoxes, but you wouldn't have this story, and probably wouldn't have the same emotional impact.
It'd be like taking the war out of Slaughterhouse-Five, if we're staying with the aliens and alien-related psychic time travel theme. Or the air out of a balloon.
I'm not sure how to spoiler tag so I'll be vague, but I think it was necessary to have her opt into that romance even though she knew there was a tragic ending to it.
Oh and the short story is very good, as is Ted Chiang's entire collection. I would definitely recommend reading them to any scifi fan.
The best sound design team. I also love the ability of the visual design team to give a true feeling of scale and weight to things.
Could you be also recommend a few generic alien invasion movies?
If you haven't seen it, District 9 is a good non-standard 'invasion' movie
you can watch skyline if you want to watch nothing new or interesting.
The thing I remember about this movie was that India got mad one of the fictional aliens from this movie decided to land in Pakistan instead of India.
The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as "Punjab, Pakistan" which is even more generic because it's a province not a city.
The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as "Punjab, Pakistan" which is even more generic because it's a province not a city.
I could see India being upset over that because it's disputed territory. Edit: This is incorrect, Kashmir is the disputed territory.
No that's Kashmir.
Punjab is technically a region that also happens to be the name of the province in both Pakistan and India since they both encompass the same region.
Thanks, that second fact is what threw me off! So they could have said either and it should not have been seen as a political statement either way (which is how I saw India being upset over it.)
Yeah essentially.
India was just mad because of general rivalry lol
It's based on a short story called "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. He's published only eighteen stories in his career (starting in 1990), nothing longer than a novella and mostly short stories. Despite that they've won him four Hugos, four Nebulas, and six Locus Awards. He's worth reading, is what I'm trying to say.
The short story was OK but this is one of the few cases where the movie did it better, added flavor to it that wasnβt in the book but carries the emotional hit farther.
The short stories in that book felt very βwoah dudeβ to me, in the end I finished it but didnβt like it all that much. Iβve been downvoted for this opinion before, but oh well.
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I watched it for the first time last year without knowing anything about it and, as someone who loves to nerd out about anything linguistics related (am translator, for context), I cannot describe how gleeful I was that such subjects had center focus in a big blockbuster like that. Obviously the other aspects of the movie were amazing as well and the story got me very emotional by the end, but I will never shut up about how interesting and important that translation/communication aspect of the movie was.
The aliens reminded me of the Tralfamadorians from Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.
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This movie absolutely destroyed me emotionally for like a week. I was wholly unprepared for what this movie was really about. I was expecting an alien invasion movie and got a brickload of emotions dumped on my heart.
Same. Saw it a few months before my first child was born and it opened up something in me that I didnβt know was there. Iβve never watched a movie that made me weep until this one. Full on sobbing. Watched it again a week later, wasnβt a fluke - sobbed again.
This was a good one. Definitely recommend
I need to give this a rewatch
Read the short story before re-watching. Definitely gives you a better perspective.
For anyone wondering, the music that just destroys you in the movie is by the amazing Max Richter. The song is On The Nature of Daylight.
PS: He recently released a piano arrangement of the song.
This song is everywhere if you look. I heard it in Shutter Island first.
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I'd like to watch this and Annihilation again. I've only seen each of them once, both around the same time, and my memories of them are pretty fuzzy at this stage.
Two of my absolute favorite movies. They are both amazing examinations of contact with life that functions completely differently than us, albeit in very different ways
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Still one of my favourite movies ever
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