Arrival is a science-fiction film based on the short story titled Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. Arrival tells a story of first contact between humans and aliens. To make sure the aliens are peaceful, U.S. Army Colonel G. T. Weber (Whitaker) hires linguistics professor Louise Banks (Adams) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Renner) to speak with the aliens and learn their language.

Arrival seems like a basic sci-fi film at first glance: humans and aliens meeting with each other for the first time, a love story between Louise and Ian, and not to mention the military is around for some possible action scenes. However, Arrival is unique with its nonlinear storytelling. Throughout the film, there are flashbacks that should feel like they interrupt the flow of the narrative but actually don’t. The mystery of why aliens are here is also very well presented. Everything from trying to solve the language of the extraterrestrials to why they are there will keep people guessing until

However, despite all the strengths of the film, the characters of Arrival feel like they lack depth and character complexity. Many of the characters feel more like archetypes than actual characters, with Amy Adams’ Louise being the only exception. The film makes it clear that the character, Louise, is very shy and introverted as well as out of touch with the military officials surrounding her. On the other hand, Renner’s Ian Donnelly feels like a typical supporting character whose only purpose is to make sure Louise isn’t talking to herself. Whitaker’s Colonel Weber is the stereotypical border-line paranoid army colonel that is only in the movie to serve as a cynical contrast towards Louise’s open mindedness and nothing more.

Overall, Arrival is a great film when it decides to focus on how to tell it’s story and nothing else. On the surface, Arrival appears to solely have science-fiction cliches under its sleeves, but its nonlinear pacing makes the film an interesting watch. Although the characters struggle to be nothing more than archetypes, the strengths of Arrival outweigh its flaws. Arrival is a 8/10.