The Arrival Movie (2016- Yes Spoilers but my first post is safe) :)

[Huntn]

Today we saw The Arrival, a cerebral, slow moving science fiction movie that, that spends most of it's time with a team trying to figure out the alien's (who have appeared on Earth around the globe) language so we can understand what they want to tell us. While I felt I was watching something profound with a twist, in the end it did not meet my standards for adventure, nor was it memorable, not really, the payoff was just not good enough imo. Most disturbing was this movie was visually very dark, almost in it's entirety, even in the daytime. See the image below? Nothing of this brightness was ever in the movie. Maybe I went to a lousy theater to see it? My impression is that this was an artistic choice. I'll say why in the spoiler section!

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Spoiler: Spoilers For Those Who have Seen the Film

If you've seen it you know, in a linear reference, what we were watching was the past = dark, not the present/future which was lighter and came across as flashbacks, but were flash forwards. This article is a pretty good description of what's going on.

OK, I'm not clear on why the Aliens came to Earth, but I think, they have a gift, a gift of seeing time in a non-linear fashion, and that somehow by understanding their language we gain this ability? I assume the idea is is that if we can experience time in non-linear fashion, we are able to better see the future even experience the future and past, just like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5 and understand the effects of our future actions. 12 ships, 12 pieces of the puzzle, mankind must work together to get the gift, I got that.

However, the mechanism is not explained other than to indicate, if you figure out their language somehow you get the ability. Or was this something they gave just to Dr. Banks (Amy Adams) when she boarded their ship?

Dr. Banks definitely gained this ability, but I'm not sure who else did. Being able to see her daughter's future death was ok, because of her new perception, but apparently it was not good enough for her husband who left her. So did he have this vision or was just unable to bear knowing his daughter would die so he abandoned them?? And somehow Dr. Banks was able to talk the Chinese General down in about 20 sec by repeating a phrase this wife said on her dying bed, but I'm not sure he, or who else got this ability if anyone to experience time non-linear. A party at the end of the movie includes some dialog about the "renunion" if I understood it correctly, was maybe because of this new ability, mankind was now one big happy family, not really sure...

 

[C DM]

Today we saw The Arrival, a cerebral, slow moving science fiction movie that, that spends most of it's time with a team trying to figure out the alien's (who have appeared on Earth around the globe) language so we can understand what they want to tell us. While I felt I was watching something profound with a twist, in the end it did not meet my standards for adventure, nor was it memorable, not really, the payoff was just not good enough imo. Most disturbing was this movie was visually very dark, almost in it's entirety, even in the daytime. See the image below? Nothing of this brightness was ever in the movie. Maybe I went to a lousy theater to see it? My impression is that this was an artistic choice. I'll say why in the spoiler section!

​

Spoiler: Spoilers For Those Who have Seen the Film

If you've seen it you know, in a linear reference, what we were watching was the past = dark, not the present/future which was lighter and came across as flashbacks, but were flash forwards. This article is a pretty good description of what's going on.

OK, I'm not clear on why the Aliens came to Earth, but I think, they have a gift, a gift of seeing time in a non-linear fashion, and that somehow by understanding their language we gain this ability? I assume the idea is is that if we can experience time in non-linear fashion, we are able to better see the future even experience the future and past, just like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5 and understand the effects of our future actions. 12 ships, 12 pieces of the puzzle, mankind must work together to get the gift, I got that.

However, the mechanism is not explained other than to indicate, if you figure out their language somehow you get the ability. Or was this something they gave just to Dr. Banks (Amy Adams) when she boarded their ship?

Dr. Banks definitely gained this ability, but I'm not sure who else did. Being able to see her daughter's future death was ok, because of her new perception, but apparently it was not good enough for her husband who left her. So did he have this vision or was just unable to bear knowing his daughter would die so he abandoned them?? And somehow Dr. Banks was able to talk the Chinese General down in about 20 sec by repeating a phrase this wife said on her dying bed, but I'm not sure he, or who else got this ability if anyone to experience time non-linear. A party at the end of the movie includes some dialog about the "renunion" if I understood it correctly, was maybe because of this new ability, mankind was now one big happy family, not really sure...

To address what's brought up in the spoiler section:

Spoiler: Potential Explanation

I believe there's one part in the film that basically explains it all, at least to some degree, it's where they talk about that learning another language and actually immersing in it has the ability to essentially remap the brain, and it seems likes that's basically what happens. That in the future the book and teachings about that universal language that the aliens basically gave will spread out throughout the world and people will be able to perceive things differently through that lounge (which will also affect their brains). And at some point down the line in something like 3000 years through that ability that the language provides and through human progress and evolution there will be something that will either prevent something form happening or facilitate something to happen that will in turn save those aliens.

 

[Huntn]

To address what's brought up in the spoiler section:

Spoiler: Potential Explanation

I believe there's one part in the film that

Spoiler

basically

explains it all, at least to some degree, it's where they talk about that learning another language and actually immersing in it has the ability to essentially remap the brain, and it seems likes that's basically what happens. That in the future the book and teachings about that universal language that the aliens basically gave will spread out throughout the world and people will be able to perceive things differently through that lounge (which will also affect their brains). And at some point down the line in something like 3000 years through that ability that the language provides and through human progress and evolution there will be something that will either prevent something form happening or facilitate something to happen that will in turn save those aliens.

I remember this in the movie and it just kind of slid by me along with the

Spoiler

rewiring of the brain reference. Something happening 3000 years down the road seems hopeful, if we can anticipate being around to experience it, but also seems so far away as being hard to get focused on that. I assume that people in the scenario would embrace the new language but what a mess to write. And seriously, the skeptic in me says it would take some heavy duty rewiring, it seems beyond what book learning would accomplish to make this kind of change in the human brain. That's why I suppose it's called science fiction.

Thank you, I appreciate it!

 

[C DM]

I remember this in the movie and it just kind of slid by me along with the

Spoiler

rewiring of the brain reference. Something happening 3000 years down the road seems hopeful, if we can anticipate being around to experience it, but also seems so far away as being hard to get focused on that. I assume that people in the scenario would embrace the new language but what a mess to write. And seriously, the skeptic in me says it would take some heavy duty rewiring, it seems beyond what book learning would accomplish to make this kind of change in the human brain. That's why I suppose it's called science fiction.

Thank you, I appreciate it!

Spoiler

I guess part of it is that this is only the beginning and it will take generations before it all has a more meaningful impact as humanity evolves with it all. And the 3000 years in the future part is something far away for humans, but perhaps not as far for the aliens, so they can kind of see that far and feel a strong enough impact from it to take action--visiting us and getting us started on this next step in our evolution--that over the next 3000 years, perhaps even without doing anything in particular and just by the evolutionary path we take and progress we make, we somehow prevent or cause something that ends up saving/helping the aliens.

 

[Huntn]

Spoiler

I guess part of it is that this is only the beginning and it will take generations before it all has a more meaningful impact as humanity evolves with it all. And the 3000 years in the future part is something far away for humans, but perhaps not as far for the aliens, so they can kind of see that far and feel a strong enough impact from it to take action--visiting us and getting us started on this next step in our evolution--that over the next 3000 years, perhaps even without doing anything in particular and just by the evolutionary path we take and progress we make, we somehow prevent or cause something that ends up saving/helping the aliens.

You make it sound very interesting. To bad besides a sentence in the movie, that was left up mostly to our imagination to interpret this. I admit when I heard the number 3000, I went a little tilt.

 

[Huntn]

@C DM having some time to digest what I saw, some of the concepts in that movie were kind of neat, but instead of seeing it, you just have some words to digest. For anyone expecting a high action quota you'll be disappointed. Even the cerebral part of it, is still mostly left up to your imagination.

 

[C DM]

@C DM having some time to digest what I saw, some of the concepts in that movie were kind of neat, but instead of seeing it, you just have some words to digest. For anyone expecting a high action quota you'll be disappointed. Even the cerebral part of it, is still mostly left up to your imagination.

Agreed, this isn't really an action type of thriller, more of a psychological/sci-fi one with the foundation and various details laid out, but not necessarily everything explained or connected or even covered outright.

 

[Huntn]

Agreed, this isn't really an action type of thriller, more of a psychological/sci-fi one with the foundation and various details laid out, but not necessarily everything explained or connected or even covered outright.

Remember when she had the symbols all laid out. Each one of those seemed to be a word. What a pain in the butt to learn that. And I thought Japanese was bad (I don't know Japanese). What it really did well was give you an idea of how difficult it would be to communicate with aliens with very little in common with us.

I forget if you saw ExMachina, but if you want something along the lines of a psychological thriller, that qualifies.

 

[C DM]

Remember when she had the symbols all laid out. Each one of those seemed to be a word. What a pain in the butt to learn that. And I thought Japanese was bad (I don't know Japanese). What it really did well was give you an idea of how difficult it would be to communicate with aliens with very little in common with us.

I forget if you saw ExMachina, but if you want something along the lines of a psychological thriller, that qualifies.

Yeah, Ex Machina is quite good. These days the more involved and interesting sci-fi seems to be about AI or various space/time possibilities. I guess it's always been like that to one degre or another, but seems like some of those are closer and closer to actual science or at least very probable science to come rather than the full fiction part.