Arrival is a PG-13 Sci-fi action film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer. The film is based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.

Arrival takes place in the modern age. Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft arrive on Earth, sending the whole world into a panic. Countries then make contact with the aliens trying to find out why the aliens are here.

The cast includes Amy Adams as Louise Banks, a linguistics lecturer, Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist, Forest Whitaker as U.S. Army Colonel G. T. Weber, Michael Stuhlbarg as agent David Halpern, Tzi Ma as General Shang and Mark O’Brien as Captain Marks.

The story focuses on the challenges of communication between the humans and their fellow man, as well as with the highly advanced aliens. The film follows the perspective of Adams as she tries to decipher the alien language.
The story is interesting and appears to be simple, but that simple appearance is shattered by the twist at the end.
The plot seemed realistic. It showed how humans would react to aliens and how they would try to communicate to them in a first encounter experience.

Adams performs fantastic in the movie. She grabs the viewer and makes them feel they are right there trying to figure out the alien language. She makes them feel her confusion, her struggle, her emotions.

The atmosphere was foreign and alien like. It made the unknown come alive.

The music was phenomenal. The music brought a sense of wonder and awe to the film. The sounds sounded alien and foreign, adding heavily to the atmosphere.

The aliens themselves were conceived beautifully. From their language to their design helped make the sci-fi world come alive.
Arrival received great critical response. On IMDb it received a score of 8/10 and on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics gave it a 94/100 and the audience gave it a 82/100. It was nominated for eight awards at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won for Best Sound Editing. It also received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress for Adams and Best Original Score.

This is a must see film for any lover of Sci-fi or even a casual movie-goer due to the movie’s thought provoking messages and story.